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Recently issued CDC guidelines emphasize the importance of diagnosing HIV infection (ACC Oct 6 2006). Acute HIV infection may be a particularly important target for diagnosis because patients with acute infection appear to have significantly increased potential for transmitting the virus. As demonstrated in North Carolina, detection of acute infection may be improved by adding nucleic-acid amplification testing (NAAT) to standard antibody testing (ACC May 11 2005). Now, this strategy has been evaluated in two urban settings.
In San Francisco, researchers assessed rates of acute and recent HIV infection among 3789 patients who attended a municipal STD clinic during 2004. Acute infection was diagnosed by screening HIV-antibody–negative specime…