FALSE POSITIVE HIV TEST IN LOW PREVALENCE REGION: PAKISTAN

Authors

  • Nadeem Ikram
  • Sajid Ahmad

Abstract

The prevalence of HIV in Pakistan is less than 0.1%, but is feared to be spreading among the general
population rapidly. Screening tests for HIV is based on antibody detection. There seems to be little
knowledge regarding the interpretation of HIV results among the population. Most often the patients
are being issued a positive HIV report based on single screening test when in fact it should be
confirmed before issuing a positive HIV result. There is a lot of stigma associated with the disease in
Pakistan, on the other hand the test is done mostly without counselling services hence causing physical
and mental trauma to the patients.
Keywords: HIV, false positive, Pakistan, AIDS, ELISA

References

Global report: UNAIDS report on the global AIDS epidemic

Available at: http://www.unaids.org/documents/

_globalreport_em.pdf

HIV/AIDS in Pakistan. The World Bank, 2005. Available at:

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPAKISTAN/Resources/

HIV-AIDS-brief-June2005-PK.pdf

Rajabali A, Khan S, Haider Warraich HJ, Khanani MR, Ali SH.

HIV and homosexuality in Pakistan. Lancet Infect Dis

;8(8):511-5.

Progress report on the Declaration of Commitment on

HIV/AIDS. UNGASS country progress report: Pakistan.

National AIDS Pakistan, 2010. Available at:

http://213.175.223.95/en/bangladesh-reference-library/item/

-ungass-country-progress-report-pakistannational-aidscontrol-program-pakistan-2010

Lyamuya EF, Aboud S, Urassa WK, Sufi J, Mbwana J,

Ndugulile F, et al. Evaluation of simple HIV assays and

development of national rapid HIV test algorithms in Dar es

Salam, Tanzania. BMC Infect Dis 2009;9:19.

HIV Assays: Operational Characteristics Report 14/Simple/

Rapid tests. Geneva: WHO; 2004.

Downloads

Published

2012-03-01

How to Cite

Ikram, N., & Ahmad, S. (2012). FALSE POSITIVE HIV TEST IN LOW PREVALENCE REGION: PAKISTAN. Journal of Ayub Medical College Abbottabad, 24(1), 116–117. Retrieved from https://jamc.ayubmed.edu.pk/index.php/jamc/article/view/2169

Issue

Vol. 24 No. 1 (2012): JOURNAL OF AYUB MEDICAL COLLEGE, ABBOTTABAD

Section

CASE REPORT

License

Journal of Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad is an OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL which means that all content is FREELY available without charge to all users whether registered with the journal or not. The work published by J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad is licensed and distributed under the creative commons License  CC BY ND Attribution-NoDerivs. Material printed in this journal is OPEN to access, and are FREE for use in academic and research work with proper citation. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad accepts only original material for publication with the understanding that except for abstracts, no part of the data has been published or will be submitted for publication elsewhere before appearing in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. The Editorial Board of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad makes every effort to ensure the accuracy and authenticity of material printed in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. However, conclusions and statements expressed are views of the authors and do not reflect the opinion/policy of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad or the Editorial Board.

USERS are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

AUTHORS retain the rights of free downloading/unlimited e-print of full text and sharing/disseminating the article without any restriction, by any means including twitter, scholarly collaboration networks such as ResearchGate, Academia.eu, and social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar and any other professional or academic networking site.