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People who have recently acquired HIV are highly infectious, so identifying them quickly is important to combating spread of the virus. What proportion of people in the U.S. are diagnosed with HIV infection soon after acquiring the virus, and what are the characteristics of these individuals?
To address these questions, investigators used a modified HIV immunoassay that distinguishes infections acquired within 6 months of testing from those acquired longer ago. From 1997 through 2001, this test was used on blood specimens from 964 patients in 10 U.S. cities who had been diagnosed with HIV infection. Twenty percent of these individuals were found to have acquired HIV within the previous 6 months. People diagnosed with HIV soon after acquisiti…