Man who thought he had HIV is angry he doesn't.

[Smmenen]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/08/30/false.hivtest.ap/index.html

This guy should thank his lucky stars and stop bitching.

/end rant.

Steve

[LoA]

There was a similar case a few years back in which a woman was told she was HIV+ by an evangelical volunteer at a clinic, who planned to then have her "healed" by faith.  It seems the volunteer didn't approve of the woman's lifestyle.  

False positives are actually pretty awful since the cocktail you end up on can really mess you up while creating a dependancy, you can't simply quit taking your drugs the next day.  Imagine going through chemo if you didn't have cancer--I'd be psyched I didn't have cancer, but I'd be pissed as hell at my PCP.

[dandan]

AIDS, I wouldn't want that again!

[Bram]

The mistake was uncovered by the VA's computer system, which tracks HIV patients and conducts a periodic review of cases.

So THAT's what vintage adepts do in their spare time...

[wuaffiliate]

The mistake was uncovered by the VA's computer system, which tracks HIV patients and conducts a periodic review of cases.

So THAT's what vintage adepts do in their spare time...

omg best pip ever

[Mith]

HIV is a very serious disease with numerous social complications. When a paitent is diagnosed with HIV, he/she will lose friends, family, social support, their career, etc...not to mention the depression and despair that accompany being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. He has evey right to be upset for having been misdiagnosed for so many years...and for having to suffer with the constant threat of full-blow AIDS. It was his physician's responsibility to carefully and continually monitor the patient's viral load and CD4 count.

So yes...he should be greatful that he doesn't have an untreatable illness..but he has every damn right to be upset for being eight freaking years. This is a serious medical error...and he has a very viable lawsuite that he could file.

[Joel Rojo]

Its up to a certain point his fault, really.

You see, there are 2 kinds of AIDS test, the first one is the one they call ELISA, which checks if you have a certain kind of antibodies, which you develop by having contact with the virus, most of the time. Anyway, you can develop this antibodies and not be infected, because the quantity of the virus that got into you isn't enough to get you infected. An example that comes to mind would be having contact with the virus through kissing or a mosquito byte.

If you get positive in the ELISA test, you MUST get the other test, which name evades me, as far as I know there is no legislation regarding this, but the ELISA test shows a lot more false positives than the other one, which very, very rarely shows a false positive.

I think that it's alright to have this sort of alternative lifestyle (they mention that the guy is gay), but if you have an alternative lifestyle that carries a special risk of contagion, you should do it with some extra responsibility and trying to inform yourself about this sort of stuff, for not doing it is why this kind of stuff happens.

[Smmenen]

HIV is a very serious disease with numerous social complications. When a paitent is diagnosed with HIV, he/she will lose friends, family, social support, their career, etc...not to mention the depression and despair that accompany being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. He has evey right to be upset for having been misdiagnosed for so many years...and for having to suffer with the constant threat of full-blow AIDS. It was his physician's responsibility to carefully and continually monitor the patient's viral load and CD4 count.

So yes...he should be greatful that he doesn't have an untreatable illness..but he has every damn right to be upset for being eight freaking years. This is a serious medical error...and he has a very viable lawsuite that he could file.

Oh I completely agree with you.  You would think that he would at least once in that article express some sort of happiness or relief that he isn't infected though.