MHA-Tp testing on HIV positive and negative women in vigilance home at Madurai
Ganapathysundaram, S.; Mallika, M.; Chandrasekaran, S.; Mohan, G.
Indian Journal of Pathology and Microbiology 35(1): 44-47
1992
ISSN/ISBN: 0377-4929 PMID: 1452245 Document Number: 329286
In June-July 1990, in India, 86 former prostitutes of Tamil Nadu origin who lived in Bombay for many years and recently returned to Vigilance Home in Madurai were tested for HIV and syphilis. 8 of their children were also tested. None of the cases exhibited signs of HIV infection or syphilis. The ELISA test revealed 55 positive HIV cases (58.5%), but the Western Blot test confirmed 47 cases to be definitely HIV positive. The remaining 8 cases had unclear Western Blot results. The VDRL test for syphilis identified 37 cases (39.3%), while the MHA-Tp test identified 43 cases (45.6%). MHA-Tp confirmed syphilis in 27 VDRL cases. 16 MHA-Tp positive syphilis cases had a nonreactive VDRL result, suggesting past/treated infection of syphilis. This also showed that MHA-Tp had a higher specificity than did VDRL. MHA-Tp revealed 10 false positive cases. 23 HIV-positive cases tested positive for syphilis with the VDRL test. With the MHA-Tp test, 27 HIV positive cases tested positive. All 8 children and their mothers tested negative for HIV (ELISA) and syphilis (VDRL and MHA-Tp), indicating that no congenital transmission of HIV or syphilis occurred in this population.