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Old 17-08-2004, 02:36 PM
perrymason32 perrymason32 is offline
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Re: HIV screening info

Hi bro bongster:

True: the main strains HIV I and HIV II. HIV I is the more common one. And HIV II is prevalent in Africa. Between the two, HIV II is considered less aggressive than HIV I; HIV II early infection symptoms (if any) tend to be milder than those of HIV I; and, AIDS onset from HIV II tends to be a little slower/come on later than that of HIV I. (Maybe there is more recent data that contradicts that, since these findings were as of the last two years...) Both are, of course, life-threatening and at this time in global history, incurable.

True that HIV II is mostly in Africa. Problem is with globalisation and international travel, it is possible to see HIV II making inroads into other regions of the world. Now the numbers are dwarfed by HIV I infection rates here. In Asia, there is growth of specific substrains of HIV I--which draws attention away from HIV II. It's just another line of infection stretching its evil claws across the region...

I remember reading a story, on the Web and probably on thebody.com, of someone who had casual sex raw with someone (both were ang moh and in Europe). The guy said he started out using a condom. The girl then said, she's clean and already took the HIV test. So he threw away the condom and they did raw and rough. Later on, he (she also I guess) found out that she had only tested negative for a HIV I test, but in fact had infected him with HIV II. The guy was writing in for advice on thebody.com and told his story, I think.

Anyway, one more thing. The rapid ELISA administered by the AfA tests for both HIV I and HIV II. The next time any bros go for the test, just ask the person doing the test if this is the case, and he or she will say yes and then show you printed on the test strip itself, "HIVI/II".

Our country may not be the kindest to HIV+ people, but is damn efficient to use the latest tests. For that, I suppose, we should be grateful.

In Malaysia, the ELISA also tests for HIV I and HIV II.

I think right now, the Quantitative PCR (Viral Load) only tests for HIV I in most private labs here. Of course, I'm pretty sure the Blood Bank and other government-run facilities in Singapore do the Qualitative PCR for both HIV I and HIV II. (Not 100% on this; but blood donations are no joke and not something that anyone wants to play around with.)

Quote:
Originally Posted by bongster
...HIV2 is most limited to Africa...
Anyway good to see more bros going for the tests