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Confronting AIDS Directions for Public Health, Health Care, and Research (1986) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix B. Serologic and Virologic Testing
Pages 304-308

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From page 304...
... Therefore, most patients with positive tests for HIV antibodies are considered to be simultaneously and actively infected by HIV. The resulting concerns about the equation of seropositivity with extant infection, continuing transmissibility, risk of disease in an infected individual, and issues of social stigmatization have caused HIV serologic testing to be very controversial.
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From page 305...
... While all are potential substrates for improved serologic tests, so far no patterns of serologic reactivity have been found to correlate with disease stage or prognosis. The configuration of the ELISA test most frequently employed in serologic analyses involves coating plastic microtiter wells or plastic beads with HIV antigen and adding test serum in various dilutions.
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From page 306...
... criteria. With accumulating experience of HIV Western blot determination, it became apparent that many patients who have only this antibody appear to represent false positives.
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From page 307...
... One would like to have 100 percent specificity, especially for an infection with the implications of HIV infection. The way the antigen is prepared may affect specificity, in that one may be measuring antibodies present in the test sera reacting with cellular products that contaminate viral preparations.
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From page 308...
... 1985. Status report on the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome: Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III testing.
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Key Terms

  • western blot
  • false positives
  • proteins encoded
  • elisa test
  • viral antigens

  • infected cells
  • detect antibodies
  • reading frame
  • elisa tests
  • hiv infection

  • specific viral
  • blot analysis
  • true positives
  • percent sensitive
  • appropriate substrate

  • serologic reactivity
  • exact sensitivity
  • predominant viral
  • serologic analyses
  • measuring antibodies

  • attached enzyme
  • actively infected
  • calorimetric reaction
  • induces antibodies
  • membrane immunofluorescence

  • hiv antibodies
  • immunofluorescent assays
  • resulting concerns
  • tests currently
  • sensitivity using


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