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From: Wounded.Bird@f38.n135.z1.fidonet.org (Wounded Bird)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: Negative Antibody tests
Message-ID: <38479@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 28 Aug 90 19:23:33 GMT
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Note:	Copyright 1990 by Daniel R. Greening.  Permission granted for
Note:	non-commercial reproduction.
Archive-number: 2431

Again from "Mobilizing Against Aids":

 "In September 1987, Annamari Ranki of Helsinki University Hospital and her 
finnish and American coworkers described their analysis of stored serum 
samples from 9 men who had recently become HIV-seropositive. They found that 
the men had been infected with HIV for 6 to 14 months before they tested 
positive on standard antibody tests. Subsequent studies by the researchers 
revealed that 5 of 25 seronegative sexual partners of known HIV- 
antibody-positive men (24 men and 1 woman) also were infected with HIV for 
more than a year without seroconversion. Other laboratories are reevaluating 
these data."

 "Steven Wolinsky of Northwestern University Medical School and his coworkers 
reported similar results at the Fourth International Conference on Aids [June 
1988]. They used a new technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test 
to search for small quantities of viral DNA in stored blood samples from 18 
homosexual and bisexual men who had recently become HIV-seropositive. They 
found that 14 of the men had had evidence of the viral genome in their blood 
for more than a year before they developed detectable antibodies: 6 for 18 
months, 2 for 24 months, 2 for 30 months, 1 for 36 months and 1 for 42 
months."..........

They go on to describe research which has indicated that in very rare cases 
HIV positives have gone seronegative as long as 2.5 years after being 
diagnosed but still retain the viral genome in their blood. They conclude 
that:

The Wolinsky sample is too small to accurately derrive an average time for 
antibody production but...... ".....A seronegative test result should not be 
viewed as a guarantee that a partner is free of the virus if the partner has 
engaged in high-risk behavior in the past." ------------------------------

Practice safer sex and get multiple ELISA's over a period of years.They only 
cost about 6 bucks....W.B.

SEEN-BY:

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