Dr. Fenton Podcast - National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

[hivquestions]

why is the hiv test different in different countries?

[AIDSvideos]

There are many tests for HIV used in different ways and combinations. The standards for use and interpretation may vary slightly in different countries, but any person who has received a positive result on an HIV test should have a "Western blot" (WB) test for confirmation. As the San Francisco AIDS Foundation notes: "False positive results are extremely rare with the WB, so it confirms (proves) that HIV antibodies are present." (hivquestions is an HIV denialist. Ignore him.)

[hivquestions]

hivquestions is a human being who took hiv drugs for 11 years until 2 years ago when he saw the film The Other Side of AIDS. the confirmatory Western Blot test also only identifies proteins and does vary from country to country. the manufacturer admits that it has a 5% false positive rate if i'm not mistaken. that is a lot of lives needlessly traumatized. antibodies are a good thing and do not identify a deadly virus except with hiv, why is that?

[AIDSvideos]

hivquestions, you are mistaken. "A large study of HIV testing in 752 U.S. laboratories reported a sensitivity of 99.7% and specificity of 98.5% .... and studies in U.S. blood donors reported specificities of 99.8% and greater than 99.99% (46, 47). With confirmatory Western blot, the chance of a false-positive identification in a low-prevalence setting is about 1 in 250 000 (95% CI, 1 in 173 000 to 1 in 379 000) (48)." (Chou et al, Annals of Internal Medicine, 5 July 05, vol 143, #1, p 55-73)

[AIDSvideos]

Having antibodies to a virus does not necessarily mean that your body is now immune to that virus. It only means that your body has been exposed to the virus (or to a vaccine) and has generated antibodies in response. Many viruses cause disease even after antibodies develop, including polio, measles, cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex, and varicella zoster. [NIAID] Antibody tests are routinely used to detect viruses besides HIV including West Nile Virus, Hepatitis B/C, HSV-2, and CMV.

[AIDSvideos]

If a person is HIV+ and meets the criteria necessary for them to be placed on ARVs, it is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS for them to go off the ARVs against medical advice. It increases the risk of developing a resistant strain of HIV, secondary infections, and death. hivquestions by his own admission in video "A Thank You 4 The Future" says "I don't feel so good today. It's another day that I just don't feel so good. I have too many of these days. I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to live."

[AIDSvideos]

Do you want to wind up feeling like that? Of course, an individual anecdote doesn't PROVE anything, which is why we have controlled clinical studies. A meta-analysis of 54 ARV clinical trials showed that using one ARV reduced progression to AIDS or death by 30% compared to a placebo, using two ARVs reduced progression by an additional 40% vs. one ARV, and using three ARVS reduced progression by an additional 40% vs. two ARVs. [Jordan et al, "Systematic review ..." BMJ 2002;324:757.]

[HIVAwareness]

Excellent,important, and educational video!