| AIDS
Discrimination in US is Widespread |
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According to an
American Civil Liberties Union survey of 43 community-based AIDS service
providers in 11 states, civil rights violations continue to be widespread
against people with HIV/AIDS throughout the United States. The survey,
released Thursday, said some people are fired, have their rental agreements
torn up, and receive inadequate health care when their
HIV/AIDS status is
revealed.
Among the most common hardships for people with HIV/AIDS in the United
Stated are denial of medical treatment, violations of privacy, deprivation
of parental rights, workplace discrimination and refusal of admittance into
nursing homes and residential facilities, the ACLU said.
"The situation is much worse than we thought it would be," said Paul Cates,
director of public education for the ACLU AIDS Project. "It is pretty
horrible stuff when you realize this is not a disease spread through casual
contact and we are more than 20 years into this epidemic."
Medical privacy violations were
reported by nearly all of the providers surveyed. "Breaches of
confidentiality can and do unravel people's lives, forcing them to find
new jobs, new schools, and new homes," said Tamara Lange, ACLU AIDS
Project attorney.
One case cited was that of a patient
admitted to a hospital in rural Texas who was left lying in a hospital
bed with only a cup of water. Staff from an
AIDS
service organization delivered medication to him, but he was
not treated and later transferred to another hospital where he died, the
ACLU said.
Reuters,
(11.13.2003) |
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| 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 |
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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