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NAIROBI, Kenya (Africa) - On Saturday in Nairobi, US Secretary of State Colin Powell told Kenyans attending a round-table discussion that fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa involves changing ideas about promiscuity and other risky sexual behaviors. "Those sorts of patterns of behavior have to change to protect young people," Powell told the gathering of 19 people, most in their teens and 20s, who work in HIV prevention. The discussion included blunt talk about sexual and cultural practices, including what Boniface Mwenda, 24, described as social pressure for young women to have sex with "people we call sugar daddies." HIV is more prevalent in older men than in young women, making these relationships a major transmission route in Kenya and other African countries. "Are you getting through to the young people, or do [they] say you're square?" Powell asked the peer educators. He was told the reception is getting better. Compared to a few years ago, topics like abstinence, being faithful to one partner, and condom use are more openly discussed. More Kenyans are also more open about their HIV status. HIV/AIDS prevention messages now reach many youths early. "We learn about HIV and AIDS, and sexually transmitted diseases," at elementary school, 11-year-old Grace Gathoni told Powell. "We are also taught to value our virginity, our education, and our life," added the Brownie patrol member, who came to the meeting dressed in her uniform. Powell arrived in Nairobi on Friday to attend a signing ceremony ending two decades of fighting between northern and southern Sudan. After the HIV/AIDS discussion, Powell met with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki.
We are providing the above information as a public service only. Providing synopses of key scientific articles and lay media reports on HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases does not constitute endorsement. The above summaries were prepared without conducting any additional research or investigation into the facts and statements made in the articles being summarized, and therefore readers are expressly cautioned against relying on the validity or invalidity of any statements made in these summaries. This CDC HIV/STD/TB Prevention News Update also includes information from CDC and other government agencies, such as background on MMWR articles, fact sheets and announcements. HIV1 - ELISA Antibodies
Most people infected with HIV carry the virus for years before manifesting AIDS. During that period, infected people will have few, if any, symptoms yet they can transmit the virus. The percentage of women with AIDS has increased steadily, and the percentage of people infected heterosexually has also increased, surpassing the percentage infected through injecting drug use. During 2001, there were 35575 newly diagnosed cases of HIV infection. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates now that 40,000 new cases of HIV transmission occur every year. Of the people infected with the virus of AIDS in the USA in the year 2001, 42% were whites, 37% blacks, 20% Hispanics and <1% Asians and Pacific Islanders and <1% American Indians and Alaska Natives. During the 1990s, the HIV epidemic shifted steadily toward a growing proportion of AIDS cases in blacks and Hispanics and in women. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the cause of AIDS (Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome). The presence of HIV in the body can be detected in several ways. The most common is the HIV-ELISA Antibodies test. The HIV-ELISA looks for the body response to the virus manifested by the presence in your blood of Antibodies to HIV proteins. Antibodies are special proteins that our Immune System produce in response to the presence of HIV. The test performed on your sample actually consists of two tests: a Screening test and a Confirmatory test. The screening test procedure is called an ELISA—Enzyme Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay or an EIA (Enzyme Immunosorbent Assay). The confirmatory test is used in the event your HIV-ELISA is positive and/or equivocal and is the procedure used is the Western Blot Assay (WB) The screening and confirmatory tests are usually done using small samples of blood. If a sample of blood tests positive repeatedly in the screening test, it will be confirmed through the Western Blot test. People will be informed that they are infected with HIV only after both the screening and confirmatory tests have shown a positive (reactive) result. Positive HIV antibody tests results are over 99% accurate when confirmed. Negative HIV antibody tests are over 99% accurate if it has been at least six months after a contact with a potentially HIV-infected partner. False negatives or false positives occur rarely. Antibodies to HIV can be detected in the blood, in the urine or in the saliva. People produce antibodies with different speeds and therefore the time interval between infection and the development of antibodies to HIV can go from four weeks to six months from the exposure date or SDC ( Suspected Date of Contact). The appearance of antibodies in a blood or urine sample of a person which was known to be negative to HIV is called Seroconversion. The HIV Elisa results are usually available in one or two business days. THE WINDOW PERIOD The time period between a person’s contact with the virus (infection) and when HIV antibodies become detectable in blood or other fluids is called the "window period". Most people will develop antibodies detectable within 4-6 weeks after infection with HIV. Some people may take longer; but nearly all (99%) will have antibodies by 6 months following infection. Therefore, the test may not be accurate if a person gets tested too soon after a potential exposure. People waiting six months from the time of the exposure before testing will have a 99% accurate test result. Until now there have been no studies showing antibodies present in people with longer than six months exposure to HIV.
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