A RAPID TEST FOR THE DETECTION OF HUMAN-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS ANTIBODIES IN CORD-BLOOD

A commercially available rapid test (HIVCHEK) was compared with an enz yme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for identifying human immunodef iciency virus type 1 in the serum of newborn infants. Of 1309 cord blo od samples tested, the HIVCHEK test detected all the true-positive sam ples detected by ELISA. Of the 35 samples with positive ELISA results, six had negative results on Western blot; only 1 of the 30 samples wi th positive HIVCHEK results had negative results on Western blot. Thus the HIVCHEK test can be used to facilitate the rapid identification o f HIV-1 in the serum of newborn infants.