BEGIUM : RESEARCHERS DEVISE NEW HIV TEST INFORMING PATIENTS OF RESULTS IN DAYS AS OPPOSED TO MONTHS.

Record ID: 402570

  • Title: BEGIUM : RESEARCHERS DEVISE NEW HIV TEST INFORMING PATIENTS OF RESULTS IN DAYS AS OPPOSED TO MONTHS.
  • Date: 21st March 1995
  • Summary: NAMUR, BELGIUM (MARCH 21 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV LABORATORY WORKER USING TEST KIT 0.06 2. MCU/CU TEST KIT (3 SHOTS) 0.21 3. GV WIDE OF INTERVIEW 0.25 4. SV PROFESSOR JOSE REMACLE, HEAD OF THE CELLULAR BIOCHEMICAL DEPARTMENT AT THE "NOTRE DAME DE LA PAIX" UNIVERSITY OF NAMUR TALKING ABOUT THE ADVANTAGES OF THE NEW TE
  • Embargoed: 5th April 1995 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NAMUR, BELGIUM
  • City:
  • Country: Belgium
  • Reuters ID: LVA1WQY5U9AIDSQDQCDDSC89994K
  • Story Text: Belgian researchers have devised a new test for HIV which can tell people within days if they have the virus rather than wait several months as with common testing methods.

    "Usually you have to wait about three months after exposure before knowing whether you are HIV-positive but with this one we can detect the virus a day or so later," Professor Jose Remacle, of Namur University in southeast Belgium, said on Tuesday (March 21).

    Remacle's method differs from the usual test in that it checks specifically for HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) rather than antibodies which can only be detected several months after infection.

    "Our test is absolutely specific and is a simplification of the most complicated ones," the professor said.

    The test costs about 300 francs (10 United States dollars) per kit -- about ten times the price of a usual test -- and since last month has been marketed in laboratories in Belgium, France and Italy.

    Distributors are being sought in more European countries and its producers hope to capture the American market.

    Remacle said the quicker test offered psychological benefits for people worried they might have contracted the virus.

    In addition, it can measure the state of advancement of the virus in the body.


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