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As HIV antibody tests become increasingly sensitive, they detect earlier stages of HIV infection and thus more infections overall. However, these tests still miss the newest infections and cannot distinguish acute from chronic infection — limitations that are troubling, given the public health importance of rapidly identifying and managing people with acute HIV infection (AHI). One strategy for overcoming these limitations is to perform pooled nucleic-acid amplification testing (NAAT) on antibody-negative specimens. Previous studies have shown that this strategy can substantially improve detection of AHI (JW AIDS Clin Care Jan 11 2010). However, in most of these studies, the initial antibody testing was done with less-sensitive, earlier ver…