Question

Explain why retroviruses are difficult to treat and describe how may this impact a western blot for HIV

Explain what causes a false positive in an ELISA test and why this may happen in some patients and not others

Answer 1

It is difficult to kill teh retroviruses as they invade ad get incorporated into the DNA of teh host cell. They are hard to detect in the host as they can stay dormant for a long period of time even after infecting teh host cell without producing any kind of symptoms. In a western blot, teh antibosies will be detected in the host sample against the HIV.

A false positive in an ELISA test could result if the patient had a flu vaccine administered, has autoimmune hepatitis, HLA-DR antibodies, or hypergammaglobulimeia.