HIV Testing Blog

Each year over 50,000 people in the U.S. become infected with HIV. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) more than 1.1 million Americans are living with HIV, and over one-quarter of them do not know it. HIV is most often transmitted through sexual intercourse or direct contact with infected blood, semen, or vaginal fluids, but it can also be transmitted through blood or organ donations. However, due to improvements in donor education and screening the risk of transmission through transfusions and transplants has decreased. These improvements now include the Abbott Prism HIV O Plus assay, an HIV antibody test.

The test, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in September 2009 is licensed for screening donated blood and blood specimens, and for screening specimens from organ donors. Prior to 1985, there were no tests available to screen for HIV in blood and organ donations, but nowadays donors and organs go through extensive testing. “The risk of acquiring HIV from a blood transfusion… is estimated to be 1 in 4 for every 600,000 transfusions. The risk… from organ transplantation is probably similar.”

The two most common blood tests used to previously detect HIV were the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the Western blot assay, which are both antibody tests. These tests can only tell if a person has been infected with HIV, not how long they’ve been infected or if they have AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome, the final stage of HIV disease).

This new HIV test will help decrease the number of HIV transmissions through blood transfusions and organ donations, and  help make the world a safer place.

*For the complete article, please refer to http://hivtestingblog.com/original-articles/

Noluthando Mtana, an Eastern Cape woman, is suing a pathology laboratory in Port Elizabeth for a life of “emotional hell” after her husband was incorrectly diagnosed HIV positive. Mtana’s spouse, Mongesi, paid for an HIV test at Prime Cure Laboratories (Prime Lab) in July of 2004, and in August he received the results indicating he was positive.

Mongesi kept the results to himself for nearly a year and began using condoms with his wife, all the while suffering from thoughts of suicide and depression. He finally revealed the results to his wife in 2005 which initiated an obsession with contracting HIV, severe episodes of depression and distrust, and even caused Noluthando to quit her job because she could no longer concentrate at work. She remained extremely distrustful of Mongesi throughout the next couple years and threatened him with divorce. Although the couple was able to remain together, their marriage was extremely difficult to maintain with the thought of HIV always lingering.

In July of 2008 Mongesi paid for another HIV test, this time with a different laboratory. This time the results indicated that he was negative for HIV and that he had never been infected in the first place. According to court papers Prime Lab had acted negligently by failing to follow the initial positive test result with the vital HIV ELISA test.

While receiving the negative result was great news and surely a blessing for them, the couple will need to participate in group and individual therapy sessions to rebuild the trust that was lost after the initial positive result. Had the ELISA test been performed the Mtana’s could have avoided years of agony and despair.

* For the complete article, please visit http://hivtestingblog.com/orignal-articles/