The idea that these tests are universally applicable is shown
to fallaceous. I'm sure they will claim that tests today are
"better" than those used in the 1980s, however, the difference
in results remains the same. Much higher positive test numbers
in Africa, than in Europe or North America.

It is easy to postulate that the cause of these results is the same.
The tests still are not suitable to Africa. How this virus is
supposed to behave so differently in African from anywhere
else (being a question about epidemiology instead of virology)
is of course _not their department_.

Alex

http://www.aegis.com/aidsline/1989/mar/M8930501.html

Seroepidemiology of human immunodeficiency viruses in Africa.

Biomed Pharmacother. 1988;42(5):309-20. Unique Identifier :
AIDSLINE MED/89051147 Fleming AF; Department of Tropical
Medicine and Infectious Diseases,; Liverpool School of
Tropical Medicine, UK.

Abstract: *The first generation of serological tests for anti-HIV-1 gave
so many false positives with African sera that it was wrongly postulated
that the virus was endemic in Africa.* As there is no simian or other
virus sufficiently closely related to HIV-1 as to suggest a recent
common ancestor, the evolution of HIV-1 is obscure and there
is no current evidence to support the hypothesis of an African origin.
However, the similarity of HIV-2 to SIV and its geographical
distribution do suggest an evolution of this virus in west Africa.

The earliest anti-HIV-1 positive serum was from a subject in
Kinshasa in 1959.

Seroprevalence rose in pregnant women in Kinshasa from 0.25%
in 1970, to 3.0% in 1980 and 5.7% in 1986. When two sexually
promiscuous groups are compared, seropositivity rose sharply in
female prostitutes in Nairobi from 4% in 1981, to 59% in 1984
and 64% in 1986, a curve which is approximately parallel to, but
three years later than that of homosexual males in San Francisco.
In central and east Africa, HIV-1 is now epidemic from Congo to
Kenya and from Uganda to Zimbabwe.

In West Africa, both HIV-2 and HIV-1 are epidemic: seroprevalence
of HIV-2 is highest in southern Senegal, Guinea-Bissau and
Cote d'Ivoire: HIV-1 has the highest frequency in Cote d'Ivoire
and Ghana. HIV-2 has not been reported, and HIV-1 is
pre-epidemic in Africa north of the Sahara, Nigeria, Angola,
Mozambique and southern Africa, being found at significant
frequency only in female prostitutes, patients with STD, or, in
Morocco and South Africa only, in male homosexuals.

Seroprevalence is greatest in female prostitutes and patients with
STD: infection is more frequent in urban than in rural populations,
except in Uganda. The peak frequency is at 30-34 yr in males and
20-24 yr in females. Other groups at risk are infants born to infected
mothers, and those requiring blood transfusions, especially pre-school
children, patients with sickle-cell disease and pregnant women. The
doubling time for seropositivity is about one year in the sexually active
age range in some populations. Even at existing seroprevalence,
decimation or worse of the most productive age groups is inevitable
during the next few years in certain countries.

(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)