Elisa HTLV Retrovirus Antibody Reactivity Associated With Malaria and Immune Complexes in Healthy Africans

Causes of false-positive HIV rapid diagnostic test results

“…[81] and come from the same viral family. Early reports suggested possible cross-reactivity with HTLV-1/2 [11,58] (and the related animal lentiviruses) [77], but consensus now is that cross-reactivity between HTLV-1/2 and HIV is at best very uncommon  Leishmaniasis Insufficient evidence with a single immunoassay false positive [39,79]; report of problems with an EIA test later withdrawn [70]  Myeloma Very limited data related to first-generation immunoassay [99]. Possibly related, Melles et al [54] report a correlation between HIVSPOT and heavy smoking, and speculate that the higher plasma viscosity in smokers may cause interference with RDTs  Picornaviruses Very limited data.…”

“…False positive results with HIV RDTs have been widely reported and attributed to a variety of causes [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. They usually lead to discordant test results, which delay diagnosis and, if the frequency of discordant results is high, undermine confidence in testing.…”

Frequency of adult T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma and HTLV-I in Ibadan, Nigeria

“…An HTLV-II-like virus which has been recently reported in West Africa could be a candidate (Delaporte et al, 1991). Alternatively, sera from Africa have been notoriously difficult to reliably test because of high rates of positivity (Biggar et al, 1985). Conditions of specimen collection, storage and transportation are unlikely to have contributed significantly to these difficulties.…”

Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Malaria in a Representative Sample of Childbearing Women in Kigali, Rwanda

“…Early studies showed a relationship between antibodies to HIV and to Plasmodium falciparum [21,22], but a later report suggests that this may have been due to cross-reactivity and difficulty with interpretation of HIV-Western blot banding patterns [23]. Another study showed increased HIV infection rates in hospitalized children with a history of malaria, but this association was due to transfusions received for malaria-induced anemia [24,25].…”