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Jean-Pierre Allain, PhD, MD; Ray Daniels, MBA
Abbott Laboratories Abbott Park, Ill

JAMA. 1988;259(7):1011-1012.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—The analysis of proposed premarital screening programs for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by Cleary et al¹ is the most detailed and thorough published to date. While the cost of such programs is clearly significant, the benefits seem underestimated when recent data are taken into account.

Today's enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays are considerably improved over those cited by Cleary et al. The Abbott test, for example, is Food and Drug Administration—licensed at 100% sensitivity and 99.85% specificity. As we will show, this change has a significant impact on the expected outcomes of testing.

For their calculations, Cleary et al assume that the rate of HIV infection among marriage applicants equals the 0.04% rate among blood donors, even while noting that "blood collection facilities actively discourage individuals at high risk of infection from donating blood." This practice, combined with donor questionnaires and other screening mechanisms, makes it unlikely that . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Footnotes
Edited by Drummond Rennie, MD, Senior Contributing Editor; Sharon Iverson, Assistant Editor.

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