IS A POSITIVE WESTERN-BLOT PROOF OF HIV-INFECTION

It is currently accepted that a positive Western blot (WB) HIV antibod y test is synonymous with HIV infection and the attendant risk of deve loping AIDS. In this communication we present a critical evaluation of the presently available data on HIV isolation and antibody testing. T his evidence indicates that: (1) the antibody tests are not standardiz ed; (2) the antibody tests are not reproducible; (3) the WB proteins ( bands) which are considered to be encoded by the HIV genome and to be specific to HIV may not be encoded by the HIV genome and may in fact r epresent normal cellular proteins; (4) even if the proteins are specif ic to HIV, because no gold standard has been used to determine specifi city, a positive WB may represent nothing more than cross-reactivity w ith non-HIV antibodies present in AIDS patients and those at risk. We conclude that the use of antibody tests as a diagnostic and epidemiolo gical tool for HIV infection needs to be reappraised.