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A sensitive/less sensitive testing strategy may effectively identify patients with early HIV infection. Early HIV infection describes the period soon after HIV antibodies become detectable in the blood. Researchers tested a large number of HIV patients, AIDS patients, and blood donors for immune markers of infection. The new testing strategy correctly identified 95% of patients with early HIV infection. Identification of these patients facilitates their enrollment in studies of the development and progression of HIV.

A sensitive/less sensitive testing strategy may effectively identify patients with early HIV infection. Early HIV infection describes the period soon after HIV antibodies become detectable in the blood. Researchers tested a large number of HIV patients, AIDS patients, and blood donors for immune markers of infection. The new testing strategy correctly identified 95% of patients with early HIV infection. Identification of these patients facilitates their enrollment in studies of the development and progression of HIV.

A sensitive/less sensitive testing strategy may effectively identify patients with early HIV infection. Early HIV infection describes the period soon after HIV antibodies become detectable in the blood. Researchers tested a large number of HIV patients, AIDS patients, and blood donors for immune markers of infection. The new testing strategy correctly identified 95% of patients with early HIV infection. Identification of these patients facilitates their enrollment in studies of the development and progression of HIV.

A sensitive/less sensitive testing strategy may effectively identify patients with early HIV infection. Early HIV infection describes the period soon after HIV antibodies become detectable in the blood. Researchers tested a large number of HIV patients, AIDS patients, and blood donors for immune markers of infection. The new testing strategy correctly identified 95% of patients with early HIV infection. Identification of these patients facilitates their enrollment in studies of the development and progression of HIV.

People who have low blood levels of HIV RNA one or two years after becoming HIV-positive may be less likely to develop AIDs. Researchers measured HIV RNA in blood samples taken from 165 hemophiliacs up to three years after they had been infected and followed them until they developed AIDS. Ten years after infection, 72% of those with 100,000 or more copies of HIV RNA per milliliter (ml) had AIDS, compared to 52% of those with 10,000 to 99,999 copies/ml, 22% of those with 1,000 to 9,999 copies/ml and none of those with fewer than 1,000 copies/ml.

As of 1992, 32 US residents have been found to be infected with HIV-2, a variant of the virus that causes AIDS. HIV-2 infection is endemic in parts of Africa, and cases have also been reported in Portugal, France and Germany. Of 17 of the US cases, 13 were West Africans. Two were US natives who had visited West Africa. HIV-2 seems to have many characteristics in common with HIV-1, including the manner in which it is transmitted, and the type of disease it causes. The viruses are also similar structurally, and most HIV-2 infected individuals will test positive or indeterminate on a Western blot test. However, the Food and Drug Administration has licensed enzyme immunoassays that can detect both HIV-1 and HIV-2. Western blot tests have also been developed to detect HIV-2. The risk of contracting HIV-2 from a blood transfusion in the US is very small.

HIV-infected men who have low CD4 T-cell counts, advanced disease or white blood cells in their semen are more likely to have the virus in their semen and would be more likely to transmit the virus through sexual intercourse. Semen samples taken from 95 HIV-positive men were tested for the presence of HIV. The virus was found in nine samples. Men who had CD4 counts less than 200, who were in an advanced stage of the infection or who were not taking zidovudine (AZT) were more likely to have the virus in their semen. Those who had white blood cells in their semen (seminal leukocytosis) were also more likely to have the virus in their semen. However, a separate study of 14 of the men whose CD4 counts were above 200 found that six had one semen sample that was positive for HIV at some time over a period of several months. All HIV-infected men should consider themselves potentially infective.

Diabetes mellitus is a serious disease rated as the seventh most common cause of death in the US. Diabetes can cause complications including blindness, heart disease, kidney failure, and limb amputation. Black Americans have a higher incidence of diabetes mellitus and approximately twice the mortality rate from diabetes compared to whites. The basis of these racial differences has not been determined. One important research question is whether higher rates of obesity among blacks lead to their greater incidence of diabetes. This survey evaluated 12,558 white and 1,677 black Vietnam veterans, age 30-47 years. Information collected included medical history as reported by the veterans, and for a sub-group, additional clinical examinations and laboratory tests. Blacks had a higher prevalence of diabetes than whites (3.0 versus 1.4 percent respectively) and this racial difference was not explained by adiposity (degree of fatness), age or socioeconomic status. Some participants had their fasting blood sugar tested, and more blacks had fasting hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) than whites. The data presented suggest that obesity does not account for the higher incidence of diabetes in blacks compared to whites., ABSTRACT: To determine whether the higher prevalence of diabetes found among blacks in the United States is explained by racial differences in obesity, we examined the prevalence of diabetes adjusted for adiposity, education, and income in a cohort of US Army veterans from the Vietnam era. Among 12 558 white men and 1677 black men, aged 30 to 47 years, blacks were more likely than whites to have diagnosed diabetes (adjusted prevalence ratio, 1.9; 95% confidence interval, 1.3 to 2.7). Within every age, adiposity, and socioeconomic stratum, blacks had a higher prevalence of diagnosed diabetes than whites. In a subgroup of veterans for whom fasting serum glucose values were measured, blacks were more likely than whites to have fasting hyperglycemia (fasting serum glucose value >/= 7.8 mmol/L)(adjusted prevalence ratio, 5.7; 95% confidence interval, 2.7 to 12.0). These data provide evidence that the higher prevalence of diabetes found among blacks is not explained by differences in obesity.

Chemokine receptors appear to influence the infective ability of HIV and may affect the rate of HIV disease progression and AIDS. The virus may use several of these receptors to gain entry and infect cells. A mutation in the CCR5 receptor has been associated with resistance to HIV infection and slower disease progression. Researchers recently demonstrated the effect of variants in this receptor on the progression of HIV infection transmitted from pregnant women to their children. Research in chemokine receptors may produce novel therapies against HIV disease.