hope DR HHH answer my questions

[JoeZ410]

dear DR，
first fogive my poor English
question 1:IS EIA test in CHINA reliable for test all groups of HIV? what is the sensitivity of it to detect rare groups?how many hiv-2 cases have been found in China?

question 2:if any subtype/group like HIV 2 or O that HAS Weak virulence and low virus breeding rate can cause antibody titer lower than detectable level after window period time?can you help me answer this question and hope there have some documents or experiments support that!
in this post http://www.medhelp.org/posts/HIV---Prevention/HIV-2-seroconversion-period/show/1803834 you said your are not sure about that,and thats 1 year ago,hope nowadays there has been some research done about that.
if theres no proof of it,how can CDC say the window period is 3 month?

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Clients do not have the option of specifying which os us answers questions.  For your information, Dr. Handsfield and I have worked togeterh for over 30 years.  Although our wording is somewhat different we have not disagreed in the facts or our advice to clients.  EWH

[JoeZ410]

thank you anyway DR
but Id like to hear what DR HHH SAYS about it，when to post that he will answer ？

[Edward W Hook, MD]

It has just been called to. Y attention that this is a repeat of an essentially identical question you asked earlier.  There will be no further replies to this repetitive question.  Repeating questions does not change answers.

This was your second post in the last few weeks.  Please no further questions for at least six months, until April2014.  EWH

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to the Forum.  I will be answering your questions.

We do not evaluate the performance of tests on this site.  In general however currently available tests for HIV that are approved by regulatory bodies such as the U.S. FDA or the world Health Association perform similarly and provide equally accurate test results.  If your test was approved by them,  and most tests used in China have been, then your results should be believed.  HIV-2 is rare worldwide, including in China.

Currently approved tests do detect so-called "rare" types of HIV.  Concerns about the ability of current tests to detect such strains are inaccurate information that is common on the Internet.  Similarly, the idea that so-called "less virulent" or "weak" strains of HIV will not lead to positive tests are inaccurate.  Currently available tests for HIV are among the most reliable tests ever made.

I hope these comments are helpful.  If it has been more than three months since your last exposure of concern and you have a negative test, my advice is for you to believe it.  Take care.  EWH