JL: Roberto A. Giraldo, MD and others have said the primary
tests for the diagnosis of HIV infection are two antibody tests,
the ELISA and Western blot, and a genetic test, the PCR or
"Viral Load" test. However, the ELISA and Western blot tests
only detect antibodies against what are erroneously accepted to
be HIV proteins or antigens.
Similarly, the PCR or Viral Load test for HIV only detects
copies of fragments of RNA that have arbitrarily been regarded
as the nucleicacid of HIV. None of these tests detect the HIV
virus itself, nor do they detect HIV particles.
AC: I am not an immunologist nor a virologist so I cannot
answer your questions with authority. I can say that the various
confirmative HIV blood tests are highly accurate. One can
quibble about the precise significance about actually what is
being tested, but I can assure you that a well-confirmed
positive HIV test is often bad news for eventual depression of
the immune system. A depressed immune system can also be
evaluated by tests such as the "T cell count" and others.
JL: How seriously do you think someone should take these tests
since they only detect antibodies and not the virus itself?
AC: I would take a positive HIV test very seriously for myself.
I recently took an HIV test and fortunately I was negative.
However,about 15 years I stuck myself with a needle that I had
just injected into a lesion of KS from a gay man dying of AIDS.
I decided NOT to get tested afterwards. Obviously, I did not
become infected. Some AIDS "dissidents" might say that was
because HIV is a harmless virus. Other health providers have not
been so lucky and have become HIV-positive after a needle stick.
JL: The AIDS dissidents like Peter Duesberg and others claim
that HTLV 3 - HIV 1 virus was never been properly isolated by
Robert Gallo or Luc Montagnier. The National Institutes of
Health enquiry found
that the HUT cell line was cultured with concentrated fluids
pooled initially from individual cultures of three patients and
ultimately from the individual cultures of ten patients.
(Maddox, 1992). One scientist described the procedure as "really
crazy." In essence, it is no different from investigating an
outbreak of pneumonia by having all patients spit in separate
pots and, when nothing turns up, getting them all to spit in the
same pot.