What is HIV
HIV (also known as human immunodeficiency virus, and formerly known as HTLV-III and lymphadenopathy-associated virus) is a retrovirus that primarily infects vital components of the...
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elisa vs rapid
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is the elisa more accurate than the rapid or are they both reliable test
Posted on 10/12/09, 03:10 pm |
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Neither ELISA nor RAPID tests should be described as "accurate". They are sensitive, meaning that they give false negative results quite rarely, but the high sensitivity comes at the cost of some accuracy, they do give false positive results more often than would be ideal.
See for example: http://health.usnews.com/articles/... A positve result on any of the highly sensitive screening tests must be followed up with more accurate tests such as western blots. The ELISAs and RAPIDs should be used as quick and inexpensive screens, used to determine who should get the more expensive and time consuming tests done. 
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