CDC stresses need for active surveillance for HIV Group O infections. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Because divergent strains of HIV may be undetected by current HIV tests, active surveillance for HIV variants is urgently needed, researchers report.

Certain European HIV screening tests have not reliably detected infections by highly divergent strains of HIV-1, indicated Charles Schable, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, and colleagues ("Sensitivity of United States HIV Antibody Tests for Detection of HIV-1 Group O Infections," the Lancet, November 12, 1994;344(8933):1333-1334).

These HIV-1 infections first were detected in central Africa and grouped provisionally as group O, indicated Schable et al.

The potential for divergent strains …