Medio ambiente y tecnologia pdf

How are HIV and AIDS diagnosed? A doctor may suspect HIV if symptoms last and no other cause can be found. If you have been exposed to HIV, your immune system will make antibodies to try to destroy the virus. Doctors use tests to find these HIV antibodies or antigens in urine, saliva, or blood. Provided in collaboration with NIH’s Office of AIDS Research. HIV infection is identified either by the detection of HIV-specific antibodies in serum or plasma or by demonstrating the presence of the virus by nucleic acid detection using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), p24 antigen testing or, rarely these days, by growing virus in cell culture. HIV viral load in serum may be measured by assays which detect HIV-RNA e.g. RT-PCR, NASBA, or bDNA. HIV viral load has now been established as having good prognostic value, and in monitoring response to antiviral chemotherapy. Improved diagnosis of acute HIV, and HIV type 2 in particular, would be expected. Knowledge of the available laboratory methods for HIV diagnosis is essential in the fight against the spread of HIV. Specific tests for diagnosing HIV infection include detecting viral antigens like p24, isolating the live virus, detecting viral nucleic acids through PCR, and detecting antibodies through ELISA and Western blot tests. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that screening protocols using laboratory-based assays should allow the detection (diagnosis of infection) or exclusion of HIV infection with a 99% level of certainty. Establishing a diagnosis of HIV has important implications for both HIV treatment and prevention. Tests for diagnosis of HIV infection include specific tests for HIV infection, detecting immune deficiency, and diagnosing opportunistic infections and malignancies. Recommended Laboratory Testing to Detect HIV in Serum or Plasma Specimens. Several available point-of-care rapid tests use one of two techniques: lateral flow or flow-through.