Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ucla-cs!usenet From: STCHRI%MCMASTER.BITNET@mvs.oac.ucla.edu (DOOGIE {{ THE DESIRE AND PURSUIT OF THE WHOLE }}) Newsgroups: sci.med.aids Subject: RE: (3100) Antibody reaction time. Message-ID: <1991Apr23.122408.2822@cs.ucla.edu> Date: 23 Apr 91 13:01:00 GMT Sender: usenet@cs.ucla.edu (Mr. News Himself) Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department Lines: 28 Approved: phil@wubios.wustl.edu Note: non-commercial reproduction. Nntp-Posting-Host: squid.cs.ucla.edu Archive-Number: 3104 In response to this question I spoke with six non-specialist GP's each of whom have 5 or more sero - positive patients ( sorry --- a cat just leapt on my keyboard) and put the question to them: "What is the normal rate of sero conversion, in your estimation. " They each told me 6 months to a year, a figure which they base on information passed along to them by our provicial ministry of health. I then called an information officer with the Ministry to query these figures. She told me this was based on information they had received from CDC, which she felt was more reliable than information which our Federal AIDS "task force" was using. She explained that the federal body had advised them of the possibility of non-conversion for as long as ten years, a figure which has been bandied about in the local media for at least two years here in Canada. I too would like to know what the current best estimate is. Douglass St.Christian Anthropology McMaster University stchri@sscvax.cis.mcmaster.ca