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From: cthorne@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Charles E Thorne)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: Re: Antibody reaction time.
Message-ID: <1991Apr25.215634.14756@cs.ucla.edu>
Date: 25 Apr 91 18:51:55 GMT
References: <1991Apr22.211533.1693@cs.ucla.edu>
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In article <1991Apr22.211533.1693@cs.ucla.edu> KARYPM%SJUVM.BITNET@mvs.oac.ucla.edu (Paul M. Karagianis) writes:
>seen a satisfactory response in the six months I've been following this
>group so I guess it's time to ask it again.  What would be a realistic
>estimate of the time between HIV infection and having anti-bodies show
>up in typical (Elisa) testing?  Last weeks TIME had a report of a study
>that tracked both virus and antibody levels in patients that the
>researchers could make a strong case for having been recently infected.
>Maximum antibody levels (judging from a simple graphic) appeared to
>occur around 2 months after infection.  I also recall the CDC using >90
>days in studies of needlesticks.  The NYC Department of Health suggests
>6 months.
>
It's been my theory for quite some time that "no one" really knows.

Early on (when the test first became available) it was used for instances
where the people had some reason to think they were infected--and also by
blood collection agencies to check the "purity" of blood.

People who had some reason to think they were infected often showed up
positive within a few weeks of their last exposure.

The first case of someone having a longer time to seroconvert involved a 
person who had been giving blood.  The first time--the blood was HIV 
anti-body negative--was accepted--and given to someone.  The next time--
several months later--tlhe blood was HIV anti-body positive--not accepted.
Then the blood collector checked with the person who had gotten the earlier
blood--and they were now HIV anti-body positive.

Thus, blood that had tested HIV negative--was given to someone--who later
tested HIV positive.  The seroconversion was (I think) about three or four
months.

As I mentioned earlier, I don't think the testing people really know how
long one could be HIV positive and still test negative because that isn't
being tested for.  The test that is easy and available is for HIV anti-bodies--
not for HIV virus--so the time of sero conversion is not likely to be known
accurately for a long time.

Also, consider the fact that in order to do "regular" research on this--you
could inject virus into subjects--and measure how long it would take to
sero-convert.  Of course a high percentage of the subjects would contract
AIDS and die.

Charlie