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SEX-RELATED DISEASES: THE AIDS VIRUS (HIV)-THE TESTS
Posted under Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction by adminThe antibodies to HIV take an average of 8 weeks to appear after infection. The tests used to find out whether someone is infected with HIV depend upon detecting the presence of the antibodies. If tests are carried out before antibodies appear the results are negative – the individual seems to be free of infection. If a donor gives blood during this period the blood will be used because the tests carried out on it (since 1985) are negative although it contains HIV. Therefore the Blood Transfusion Service asks those who are ‘at high risk’ of carrying HIV not to volunteer to give blood. These high-risk groups include men who have had sex with another man since 1977; people who have injected drugs under the skin or into the blood stream since 1977; people who have had sex, either homosexually or heterosexually, in Africa, south of the Sahara, or Haiti since 1977; and the partners of members of any of these high-risk groups. These groups are also asked not to carry organ donor cards and the men are asked not to donate semen. The reason for all these precautions is that HIV antibody tests may be negative but the individual still carries the HIV virus.
The wisdom of these rulings has been illustrated by the arrival of a new test which depends not on detecting antibodies but actually detects the HIV itself. Using this test it has been found that in some People antibodies do not appear for three years or more. The test is not yet ready for routine use but what it tells us is that some people disseminate the virus for 40 or more months whilst the standard antibody tests remain negative.
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