About the Authors

Naseem Cassim

Affiliation National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), National Priority Programmes, Johannesburg, South Africa

Lindi M. Coetzee

Affiliation National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), National Priority Programmes, Johannesburg, South Africa

Kathryn Schnippel

Affiliation Health Economics and Epidemiology Research Office, Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Deborah K. Glencross

debbie.glencross@nhls.ac.za

Affiliations National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), National Priority Programmes, Johannesburg, South Africa, Department of Molecular Medicine and Haematology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Competing Interests

The patent for the laboratory CD4 method currently used in laboratories in the National Health Laboratory Service (#EP 1 405 073 B1, and US patent #7670793, entitled: ‘Cell Enumeration’), is wholly owned by the National Health Laboratory Service. In terms of DKG′s employment contract with the NHLS, any invention made by DKG during the course of employment is automatically deemed to be owned by the NHLS. As such, DKG is named as the inventor but the patentee is the NHLS. Use of this patented CD4 method in NHLS is not automatic and despite that Beckman Coulter have a licensing agreement with the NHLS, BC is still required, through national government procurement policy, to compete in an open public tender to supply CD4 laboratory testing equipment and reagents. The tender is readvertised and renewed after the expiration period specified for the tender. The remaining authors declare no conflicts of interest. The authors confirm that this does not alter their adherence to all PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: DKG. Performed the experiments: NC LMC. Analyzed the data: NC LMC. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: NC LMC KS. Wrote the paper: DKG LMC NC KS.