Dear Dr. Cohen:

Many people who ask questions here, myself included, are

struggling to accept negative ELISA results 6 months or more

after a possible exposure. Often, these people report

symptoms consistent with ARS or HIV infection in general.

Now, I realize that if you look hard enough you can match

virtualy ANY "symptom" to HIV. Nevertheless, it seems that

SOMETHING is going on here, which leads to my question. I

know that HIV is a very diverse virus, with types 1 and 2,

and multiple subtypes of HIV 1, including the "undetectable"

type O. It seems to me that it is only a matter of time

before we hear about more subtypes and/or "HIV 3". I was

wondering what your view of this is. Are you seeing/hearing

of many cases of Type O or other strange variants? Have you

heard of or seen people consistently testing ELISA negative,

but ending up being HIV infected? If so, how are these

infections diagnosed? Obviously, there are also

psychological factors (e.g., guilt, shame, etc) at work

with people like me who cant accept their negative results.

However, I think it would help to know that, as a matter of

hard science/medicine, the current tests are reliable.

Thank you for your time.

Well, from what I hear, so far the test remains quite accurate and reliable. And that there is no evidence yet of an HIV three or other issues that lead us to doubt that symptoms plus a negative test at month six will reflect some uncharted new virus.

But you are right - sometimes a few anecdotes can be the beginning of a new story, while other times it is just the reflection of these troubled times. So scientists must remain vigilant - and I think enough of us are so that if somewhere in these stories is a new issue that we'll find it.

But for now, I think negative just means negative. And is not the beginning of a new stephen king novel... But we'll keep looking.

Hope that helps.

CC