Staff in EAPOC Project trained on GeneXpert Machine

Article by Calvin Mbeda, Adhiambo Phillister, and Frank Angira

The GeneXpert machine is a molecular diagnostic platform developed by Cepheid, a company specializing in molecular diagnostics. It is used for the rapid and accurate detection of various infectious diseases, including providing counts of HIV viral load, also known as viral load testing. From these pictures, during the East Africa Point of Care Viral Load Study (EAPoC-VL) Training, all staff participating in the implementation of EAPOC VL activities attended face-to-face training at the site.

A dry run on how the schedule of activities is conducted. This is the testing area; the GeneXpert machine. The laboratory lead, Fred Oloo took us through a demonstration on sample reception, sample preparation, and cartridge loading, where the sample is loaded into a disposable cartridge.

Each cartridge contains all the necessary components for the molecular diagnostic assay, including insertion into the GeneXpert machine, whereby the loaded cartridge is inserted into the GeneXpert machine, which automatically performs the molecular diagnostic assay. The machine's design integrates sample preparation, nucleic acid amplification, and detection into a single automated process, results interpretation, and data management.