(NL-this is a comment I have made into a post because I totally agree with EVERYTHING Michael has said, including that Weinstiein is a fucking idiot)
OP/ED by Michael Whiteacre
Here’s Weinstein — the man with an honorary degree from Whittier College — trying to explain HIV testing, what was done wrong, and why AHF system is so much better:
Weinstein: “Labs work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I don’t know the particular lab they were using or what the situation is, but I mean, it is possible to get a confirmation—I mean, in the test sites that AHF operates, for example, we presume a person is positive if they have two different Rapid tests. I mean, when you have two different Rapid tests, for example, the statistical possibility that that person is not positive is infinitesimal. So that would be one way to make it a much shorter period of time to actually start getting the other people in to be tested. I mean…”
Here is the description of the Orasure test AHF uses, directly from the manufacturer’s website:
– OraSure is not as accurate as a blood test — for example, it will miss finding 1 to 2 people with HIV out of 100 positive persons tested
– as with blood tests, six to twelve weeks must pass after infection has occurred before enough antibodies have been produced for the test to detect them
– an OraSure test performed three months after the potentially infectious event (sex without a condom or shared intravenous drug needles/equipment) is about 95% accurate
– a test at 6 months will be the most accurate
– all positive rapid result tests require us to draw a blood test as a confirming test.
Okay, as you can see, Orasure is an ELISA-type anti-body test with a window period of 3 to 6 months, with 6 months being the gold standard. It’s about 95% accurate at 90 days. The PCR-DNA is 95% accurate at TEN days. AHF’s claims — and their protocols — are full of shit.
Q: “But assuming they don’t do that, there are other tests that do take longer, right?”
Weinstein: “Well, there are less effective or efficient methods, but in an emergency, you would think you would use the best practice that’s available.”
To quote Ernest Greene, a former director of AIM, on the matter: “In an emergency, Orasure would be like calling in the UN for a traffic accident. What we have used in the past is a combination of two PCR-DNA tests, a Western Blot and an ELISA to cover all bases. That does take more time, usually a few days. And in past cases, ELISAs have turned up negative on new cases with viral loads in the tens of thousands. Anyone who walks away from an ELISA of any sort with a negative result and feels safe is delusional unless they’ve had no no sexual partners in half a year. Hardly workable for our community. FSC IS using the best practices available.”
In other words, since the patient in this instance is allegedly a NEW infection, the procedure Weinstein recommends would be THE STUPIDEST thing in the world to do, because the patient would not have had time to develop the anti-bodies which could be picked up by one or two or a thousand Rapid tests at this point in time. What a fucking idiot.
(NL-this is a comment I have made into a post because I totally agree with EVERYTHING Michael has said, including that Weinstiein is a fucking idiot)
OP/ED by Michael Whiteacre
Here’s Weinstein — the man with an honorary degree from Whittier College — trying to explain HIV testing, what was done wrong, and why AHF system is so much better:
Weinstein: “Labs work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I don’t know the particular lab they were using or what the situation is, but I mean, it is possible to get a confirmation—I mean, in the test sites that AHF operates, for example, we presume a person is positive if they have two different Rapid tests. I mean, when you have two different Rapid tests, for example, the statistical possibility that that person is not positive is infinitesimal. So that would be one way to make it a much shorter period of time to actually start getting the other people in to be tested. I mean…”
Here is the description of the Orasure test AHF uses, directly from the manufacturer’s website:
– OraSure is not as accurate as a blood test — for example, it will miss finding 1 to 2 people with HIV out of 100 positive persons tested
– as with blood tests, six to twelve weeks must pass after infection has occurred before enough antibodies have been produced for the test to detect them
– an OraSure test performed three months after the potentially infectious event (sex without a condom or shared intravenous drug needles/equipment) is about 95% accurate
– a test at 6 months will be the most accurate
– all positive rapid result tests require us to draw a blood test as a confirming test.
Okay, as you can see, Orasure is an ELISA-type anti-body test with a window period of 3 to 6 months, with 6 months being the gold standard. It’s about 95% accurate at 90 days. The PCR-DNA is 95% accurate at TEN days. AHF’s claims — and their protocols — are full of shit.
Q: “But assuming they don’t do that, there are other tests that do take longer, right?”
Weinstein: “Well, there are less effective or efficient methods, but in an emergency, you would think you would use the best practice that’s available.”
To quote Ernest Greene, a former director of AIM, on the matter: “In an emergency, Orasure would be like calling in the UN for a traffic accident. What we have used in the past is a combination of two PCR-DNA tests, a Western Blot and an ELISA to cover all bases. That does take more time, usually a few days. And in past cases, ELISAs have turned up negative on new cases with viral loads in the tens of thousands. Anyone who walks away from an ELISA of any sort with a negative result and feels safe is delusional unless they’ve had no no sexual partners in half a year. Hardly workable for our community. FSC IS using the best practices available.”
In other words, since the patient in this instance is allegedly a NEW infection, the procedure Weinstein recommends would be THE STUPIDEST thing in the world to do, because the patient would not have had time to develop the anti-bodies which could be picked up by one or two or a thousand Rapid tests at this point in time. What a fucking idiot.