![]() ![]() ![]() Apart from its use in HIV disease diagnosis, WB test could also be used in conjunction with simpler tests like full blood counts and patient clinical assessment as a relatively cheaper disease monitoring tool required prior to accessing antiretroviral therapy for poor resource settings. ConclusionĪbsence of antibody reactivity to pol and gag p39 antigens was associated with acute infection and disease progression, respectively. Although not statistically significant, women with p39 band missing were 1.4 times more likely to transmit HIV-1 to their infants. Lack of antibody reactivity to gag p39 antigen was associated with disease progression as confirmed by the presence of lymphadenopathy, anemia, higher viral load, p = 0.010, 0.025 and 0.016, respectively. However, antibody reactivity to gag antigens varied among the women, being 100%, 90%, 70% and 63% for p24, p17, p39 and p55, respectively. All women with chronic HIV-1 infection had antibody reactivity to both the HIV-1 envelope and polymerase antigens. Absence of HIV pol antigen bands was associated with acute infection, p = 0.002. ![]() ResultsĪmong the 64 HIV infected pregnant women, 98.4% had pure HIV-1 infection and one woman (1.7%) had dual HIV-1/HIV-2 infections. Pearson Chi-square test was used to assess differences in lack of bands appearance with vertical transmission and lymphadenopathy. Student-t test was used to determine maternal differences in mean full blood counts and viral load of mothers with and those without HIV gag antigen bands. HIV type characterization was done in a cohort of infected pregnant women at 36 gestational weeks using WB test. Besides accurately predicting HIV infection, sequential appearance of specific bands of WB test offers a window of opportunity to develop a less subjective tool for monitoring disease progression. It is imperative to develop simple, affordable and non-subjective disease monitoring tools to complement clinical staging efforts of inexperienced health personnel currently manning most healthcare centres because of brain drain. ( JAMA 260:674-679) when the US FDA criteria are used to interpret the HIV Western blot less than 50% of US AIDS patients are HIV positive whereas 10% of persons not at risk of AIDS are also positive by the same criteria.ĪFR = Africa AUS = Australia FDA = US Food and Drug Administration RCX = US Red Cross CDC = US Center for Disease Control CON = US Consortium for Retrovirus Serology Standardization GER = Germany UK = United Kingdom FRA = France MACS = US Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study 1983-1992.Expensive CD4 count and viral load tests have failed the intended objective of enabling access to HIV therapy in poor resource settings. Yet the HIV Western blot is considered to be highly specific and is considered synonymous with HIV infection.Īccording to data presented in Lundberg et al. A person from the MACS would not be positive anywhere in the world including Africa. An African would not be positive in Australia. Hence a positive test in one country is not positive in another. The HIV Western blot is not standardised and thus around the world different combinations of bands are considered positive. Serum is added to the strip and if there are antibodies to a particular protein this band will 'light up'. Each protein is labelled with a 'p' followed by its molecular weight in thousands. The HIV Western blot consists of a thin nitrocellulose strip in which are embedded proteins claimed to be unique to HIV. HIV POSITIVE ? DEPENDS ON WHERE YOU LIVE. HIV & AIDS - The HIV Western Blot Test - Criteria for a positive test result. ![]()
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