Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1987. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press; Friday, September 11, 1987
Scientists at the Research Institute of Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, Calif., and the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta said that the test appears to be superior to the so-called Western Blot test widely used to confirm infection by the AIDS virus.
Health authorities typically screen blood and test people for AIDS infections using what is called an ELISA test, which detects antibodies developed against proteins coating human immunodeficiency virus or HIV.
Because current ELISA tests can give false positive readings -- sometimes indicating an infection when none is present -- scientists verify positive findings with the Western Blot, a more time-consuming and difficult test to detect core proteins to the virus.
In a report to be published today in the journal Science, scientists say they have developed a very specific type of ELISA test that doesn't produce false positives or negatives.
Also, they say, the test can be modified easily to detect other strains of the HIV virus. This means that if new disease-causing strains of HIV are found, tests for them can be produced quickly.
"The test is pretty much 100 percent in detecting different strains of HIV," Dr. Jay A. Nelson of Scripps said.
The test was developed by Drs. John W. Gnann Jr., Michael B.A. Oldstone and Nelson at Scripps, and Drs. Joseph B. McCormick and Sheila Mitchell of the CDC.
Nelson said researchers are comparing the new test and Western Blot. Results must be accepted by the Food and Drug Administration before the new test can be approved for general use, he said.
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