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AIDS Chief Quits After 16 Months |
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Late Tuesday, shortly
after the new mayor took office, the District of Columbia's HIV chief
for the last 16 months announced her departure. "It's my time to leave
the government," Marsha Martin, director of the Administration for
HIV
Policy and Programs (AHPP), wrote in an e-mail to agency employees and
community groups.
"We thought it was a good time to have a new set of eyes" for AHPP, said
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), who confirmed he had not reappointed Martin.
"This is one of our critical, critical issues."
"She has been instrumental in bringing greater visibility to the issue
of HIV in the District," said Walter Smith, executive director of the
watchdog D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, which had faulted
AHPP's previous performance more than a year ago.
Under Martin's tenure, AHPP failed to meet a testing initiative's goal,
launched in the summer, of screening most residents for HIV, said Smith.
However, Martin had begun hiring critical people needed for
surveillance, he noted. "There were a lot of things she couldn't
control," he said, adding that her successor "has to get more support"
from top city leaders.
Martin increased awareness of the disease in the city, said Donald
Blanchon, executive director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic. "As a
District resident, I think that was a remarkable achievement."
However, A. Toni Young, co-chairperson of the city's
HIV
Prevention Community Planning Group, criticized Martin for failing to
connect with groups that work directly with HIV/AIDS patients.
AHPP has had nearly a dozen directors in 21 years. Martin had previously
served as the executive director of Washington-based AIDS Action and as
a special assistant on HIV/AIDS policy to Health and Human Services
Secretary Donna E. Shalala. |
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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. |
| HIV 2 ELISA
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Persons at risk for
HIV-2 infection include:
Sex partners of a
person from a country where HIV-2 is endemic (this category includes
persons originally from such countries).
Sex partners of a
person known to be infected with HIV-2.
Persons who
received a transfusion of blood or a nonsterile injection in a country
where HIV-2 is endemic.
Persons who shared
needles with a person from a country where HIV-2 is endemic or with a
person known to be infected with HIV-2.
Children of women
who have risk factors for HIV-2 infection or who are known to be
infected with HIV-2.
Additionally,
testing for HIV-2 is indicated when there is clinical evidence for or
suspicion of HIV disease (such as an AIDS-associated opportunistic
infection) in the absence of a positive test for antibodies to HIV-1 and
in cases in which the HIV-1 Western blot exhibits the unusual
indeterminate pattern of gag (p55, p24, or p17) plus pol (p66, p51, or
p32) bands in the absence of env (gp160, gp120, Or gp41) bands.
Although most HIV
infections in the United States are of HIV-1 group B subtype, current
ELISAs can accurately identify infections with nearly all non-B subtypes
and many infections with group O HIV subtypes. Infections with HIV-2 and
HIV-1 group O are rare in the United States and routine screening for
these subtypes is not generally recommended as part of diagnostic
testing except in areas where several such infections have been
identified. Routine screening for HIV-2 might be appropriate in certain
populations where potential risk for HIV-2 infection is higher (e.g., in
areas where West African immigrants have settled). Since June 1992, FDA
has recommended routine screening for antibody to HIV-2 (in addition to
HIV-1) for all blood and plasma donations. Clients with clinical,
epidemiologic, or laboratory history that suggests HIV infection and
negative or indeterminate HIV-1 screening tests should receive further
diagnostic testing to rule out HIV infection, potentially including
testing for HIV-1 non-B subtypes and HIV-2 .
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