Xref: utzoo soc.motss:45483 sci.med.aids:2619
Path: utzoo!attcan!telly!lethe!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!ucla-cs!news
From: rpetsche@mrg.PHYS.CWRU.Edu (rolfe g petschek)
Newsgroups: soc.motss,sci.med.aids
Subject: Re: Something from GayNet re:HIV vaccine.
Message-ID: <1991Feb12.230635.20284@cs.ucla.edu>
Date: 12 Feb 91 22:53:39 GMT
References: <1991Feb8.113638.4686@cs.ucla.edu> <1991Feb11.005044.7108@cs.ucla.edu> <1991Feb12.142731.29249@cs.ucla.edu>
Sender: news@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu
Reply-To: rpetsche@mrg.PHYS.CWRU.Edu (rolfe g petschek)
Organization: CWRU Physics Department
Lines: 23
Approved: phil@wubios.wustl.edu
Note: non-commercial reproduction.
Nntp-Posting-Host: squid.cs.ucla.edu
Archive-Number: 3011

In article <1991Feb12.142731.29249@cs.ucla.edu> sys0002@dircon.co.uk (Julian Hayward) writes:
>bywater!arnor!dgreen@uunet.UU.NET replies to:
>
>
>Out of interest, how can they tell if the treatment is successful when
>it causes HIV- individuals like yourself to show HIV+? Is there a further
>test which can identify the difference from real HIV infected cells?

There are such tests but they are harder than the usual anti-body
test for HIV.  Probably the most accurate (though it is not without
dispute) is the polymerase chain reaction which will test if there is
RNA with the pattern of [part of] the genetic code of the virus.  This
is how the presence of HIV in a British sailor who died in the 1950's
was detected.  The possible difficulty with this is that it does not
demonstrate infection with the virus - only the presence of the virus
and there is some dispute therefore that it correctly indicates the time
in which a person can have an active HIV infection but not be
sero-positive for HIV antibodies.
--
Rolfe G. Petschek			Petschek@cwru.bitnet
Associate Professor of Physics		rgp@po.cwru.edu
Case Western Reserve University		(216)368-4035 
Cleveland Oh 44106-2623