EVALUATION OF AN AGGLUTINATION HIV-1-ASSAY(2 ANTIBODY)

Studies have shown that an HIV (HIV-PA) agglutination assay (Serodia) for the detection of antibody to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) ca n be as sensitive and as specific as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). However, since this HIV assay was designed to detect antibod y to the HIV-1 virus, a substantial number of HIV-2 positive sera are missed by this assay. Since the HIV-2 has now been found throughout th e world this test is becoming less suitable. The new HIV-1 + 2 assay v ersion (HIV-1 + 2 PA) was evaluated in 300 sera, which contained 50 HI V-1, 40 HIV-2 and 10 HIV-1/HIV-2 antibody positive samples, and a sens itivity and specificity of 100% and 99%, respectively, was obtained. W hereas all HIV-2 positive sera were detected by the new HIV-1 + 2 vers ion, 26% (13/50) were missed by the old version of the agglutination t est. It is concluded that the HIV-1 + 2 PA assay is a promising instru ment free assay which can be used for screening purposes in areas wher e both HIV-1 and HIV-2 are present.