Facebook’s ‘Phone’ Is Another Triumph of Mediocrity

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2013/04/zuck-announce-660x439.jpg" /><br /><span style="background-color: black; color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">Mark Zuckerberg poses with HTC CEO Peter Chou (left) and AT&T President & CEO Ralph de la Vega after today’s grand unveiling. </span><em style="color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Photo: Alex Washburn/Wired</em><br /><em style="color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></em><em style="color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></em><br /><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><em style="color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maybe you were hoping for something radically new and different from a Facebook phone. If so, <a href="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/04/facebook-android-home-phone/" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Zuck just broke your heart</a>. But so what. Facebook never does anything new. New doesn’t matter in the blue. What matters is this: What Mark Zuckerberg announced today runs software called Facebook Home that makes it easier for people to spend more time with Facebook. And that’s all he really needed to pull off.</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><em style="color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In fact, the long rumored Facebook phone turned out not to be a phone at all. Or even a new OS or a fork of the Android operating system like Amazon’s Kindle Fire. It’s something more than an application, and slightly less than an operating system. As Wired.com editor Mark McClusky described it, Facebook Home is an “apperating system.” The genius of the Facebook phone is that the company made a phone without making a phone at all. It’s not overly ambitious. It’s not a big bet. And that’s why it may have such a huge payoff.</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><em style="color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Over the past few days, lots of pundits have been asking who this is for. Facebook gave us an answer today: It’s for people who don’t care about a rich, full experience on the Internet, yet love Facebook. People who want to run apps, but are overwhelmed by them. People who want to connect with friends and family, but want it to be super easy to do so. For many people, Facebook <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">is</em> the Internet, just as AOL was before it. And just as Facebook is the best way for them to experience the Internet in a browser, Facebook Home is going to be the best way for those people to experience the Internet on a phone.</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><em style="color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The product that Facebook chose to roll this out on, the HTC First, is at best a mid-tier device. But that’s OK. Thinking about it in the context of, say, chamfers or pixel density misses the point. This isn’t a product rollout designed for someone who cares about processor speeds. Hell, this isn’t a rollout designed for someone who knows what a processor is. Facebook simply needed to show something that makes it easy to connect, consume and share more content with your friends. It did that. That dive-into Facebook home screen is the only thing that matters — you don’t even have to unlock your screen to dig into social. So who cares if Facebook Home makes its debut on mediocre hardware? Certainly not the people who made Facebook a hit.</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><em style="color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Facebook itself is a triumph of mediocrity. It’s not the best communications platform; that’s Twitter or WordPress. It’s not the best photo sharing app; that’s Instagram or Flickr or maybe even Snapchat. It’s certainly not the best app platform, the best address book or the best messaging service. Likewise, it’s so easy to hate on Facebook for privacy policies, or the annoying ads, or for constantly rearranging things, or the things your crazy uncle posts there or, well, hell — take your pick. But Facebook is really, really good at connecting people. And that means it can be just OK at everything else.</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><em style="color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Like Facebook, your phone, at its most basic level, is designed to connect you with other people and deliver information. Like Facebook, it is a messaging system that also has applications. The first phone with Facebook Home doesn’t need to amaze. It just has to work. It just needs to prove that it’s good enough at letting you upload pictures of your kid, and good enough at letting your dad easily see pictures of his grandson, and good enough at reminding you that it’s Sam’s birthday and, hey, do you want to say happy birthday? “Happy Birthday, Sam!”</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><em style="color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Facebook Home, as Zuckerberg says, is built around people, not apps. <a href="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/04/facebook-home-glossary/" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Chat Heads</a> personalize your conversations with constant visual reminders of who you are talking to. Updates from friends just magically appear on your lock screen. New messages trickle in while you read the news of the day. It’s your friendly companion, right on your lock screen. As long as it excels at connecting you with other people, and has a clean straightforward design that’s easy to use, it wins. I mean, look at how well that’s worked out for Facebook itself.</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><em style="color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">And most importantly, this thing is flexible. You can install it yourself, which means Facebook Home will run on at first a few, and then lots and lots of Android handsets. And there are an enormous and growing number of Android handsets out there, with more all the time.</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><em style="color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Android is already the world’s most dominant mobile OS. In the coming year there are going to be hundreds of millions of Android handsets sold, <a href="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/02/mediatek/" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">many for next to nothing in the developing world</a>. At $100, the HTC First with Facebook Home is going to tempt a lot of people who love Facebook (AKA: the Easier Internet). The HTC First may be the first Android handset to come with Facebook Home loaded, but it certainly won’t be the last. Before long, you can bet you’ll be able to pick up a handset with Facebook Home pre-installed for free with a two year contract. (And while this is just a hunch, I suspect there is a strong correlation between people who want a “free” smartphone with people who really dig Facebook.)</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><em style="color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Will businesses take to it? Almost certainly not. No business, other than maybe Buzzfeed, wants its employees spending more time on Facebook. Will it be a hit with early adopters and the tech set? That’s laughable. No. Will millions of Americans just want a handset that can run Facebook? That seems like a bet I’d take.</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><em style="color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">You see, if you’re not already Facebook averse* there’s no real downside to Facebook Home. It’s just more software that makes it easier to do the things you already do without having to give anything up–other than your privacy but that’s a devil’s bargain you long ago forged with Zuck anyway.</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><em style="color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">There’s another thing Facebook is really good at too, and that’s tracking. And by all appearances this phone is good at that too. It’s going to know where you are, who you’re talking to and when, even what apps you’re running. All of which is great for Facebook, because ultimately Facebook wants to know every little thing it can about you so it can get you to click on some ads.</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><em style="color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Facebook Home doesn’t even have to be a hit. At least not right away. The important thing is that it’s out there, and it didn’t require a lot of up-front capital or R&D investment in hardware. It’s a better strategy than anything else the company has done in mobile. People who already really like Facebook will also like this. For people who live in Facebook, it may even drive them to buy one handset over another. Sometimes mediocre is all it takes.</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><em style="color: #dddddd; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">*<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maybe you should be</em>.</em></div></div>

Facebook’s ‘Phone Facebook’s ‘Phone’ Is Another Triumph of Mediocrity

Mark Zuckerberg poses with HTC CEO Peter Chou (left) and AT&T President & CEO Ralph de la Vega after today’s grand unveiling.  Photo...

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Shut the Fuck Up with Hank Philpot Episode 2

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKtX3Ft6zfUCCyDJ9iMIeXlV4X0iyMsnGqqwduqk0VDd8lZW-3iEZbJbGAWXAQXoAm_Sc-USmC7wvSRUj_cwKN_XCZtKyvEz7VvaZguOEpGsCYUXipHaN847cBllKbwe52iY5D-uNYKVQ/s1600/Angry-Man-Hank+Philpot+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKtX3Ft6zfUCCyDJ9iMIeXlV4X0iyMsnGqqwduqk0VDd8lZW-3iEZbJbGAWXAQXoAm_Sc-USmC7wvSRUj_cwKN_XCZtKyvEz7VvaZguOEpGsCYUXipHaN847cBllKbwe52iY5D-uNYKVQ/s400/Angry-Man-Hank+Philpot+(1).jpg" width="400" /></a>Hello.  Hank Philpot here.  I’m a friend of Matt-Man.  I was going off on some things the other day to him and he said I could write down my bitches about the world today on this blog thing.<br /><br />He told me that today, I could consider the IWS blog to be my, tablet razor or something like that.  I don’t know what he meant by that, but here I am….Hank Philpot.<br /><br />Now listen, this basketball coach at Rutgers, Mike Rice?  It seems he’s in a boatload of trouble.<br /><br />I guess he was trying to get his Scarlet Knights of Rutgers basketball team in shape for the season and he was too hard on the God Damn pansies.<br /><br />He threw basketballs at them…He pushed them…He called them faggots…Well let me tell you…<br /><br />My father used to beat me on the ass with a bolo paddle for calling my sister a whore, and my Drill Sergeant, Gunny Sarge Buck Masters used to stick a bayonet up my ass for being three seconds late to a drill.<br /><br />Don’t give me this, <i>“He was too hard on those basketball boys, shit.”</i>  Shut the Fuck Up!!<br /><br />Coach Rice just wanted them to be ready for when they played big time schools with darkies who play with one hand on the ball and another hand carrying a switchblade.<br /><br />If you can’t see that, well…you can’t see that your 12 year old is boy probably gonna turn out to be a gay bastard who views Rachel Maddow as the man that Chris Hayes wishes he could be.<br /><br />It’s just wrong, and if you don’t agree…<i>Shut the Fuck Up!!</i><br /><br />And now that I have invoked the names of people who appear on MSNBC have you seen the following..?<br /><br />Alex Wagner…Cute as hell…I’d take her down and pluck her in my chicken coop anytime, but man she opens her pretentious mouth, and I say, <i>“Shut the Fuck up.”</i><br /><br />And then there is Mika Brzezinski, liberal star of Morning Joe on MSNBC…Jesus Christ…That chick has been riding on the coat tails of her dad since, well…ever since her dad helped Jimmy Carter to become irrelevant.  But in all fairness, her dad has a thick accent so, that makes him smart.<br /><br />Mika has no accent, so….well…her stupidity shines through.  You know what I have to say about that?<br /><br />Mika?  You’re not bright!!  <i>So shut the fuck up!!</i><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicyAFqQI3Z34j5No4XjM7muumfvZNvMbJ972uB4Pwo4zKy6B_21Z_H7z_q8IVd6Al_m4HW_iO-hECLx556ZSOxasn-O6u6N2J66R8oi2BEH3VHB5uDcf5K0jk6mQh0oguYCnV2caavnYo/s1600/martin-bashir_msnbc-600_arrogance-stupidity-300x200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicyAFqQI3Z34j5No4XjM7muumfvZNvMbJ972uB4Pwo4zKy6B_21Z_H7z_q8IVd6Al_m4HW_iO-hECLx556ZSOxasn-O6u6N2J66R8oi2BEH3VHB5uDcf5K0jk6mQh0oguYCnV2caavnYo/s400/martin-bashir_msnbc-600_arrogance-stupidity-300x200.jpg" width="400" /></a>Oh people. Some are coming around to our gun-toting, God-Loving side…<br /><br />I was told by a devout quasi-Catholic, yet somewhat agnostic, religion reporting guy this week that he hates Martin Bashir as well…<br /><br />And why shouldn’t he?<br /><br />Sure...Martin Bashir stands tall among his fellow Christ Haters, in all of his MSNBC, London born Pakistani glory in a tight knit seersucker suit coat talking in his condescending UK accent to Americans, while aggrandizing about our hate for foreigners, but...you know what Mr. Pak Man?<br /><br /><i>Shut the Fuck Up!!</i><br /><br />Sure…We can let the children in, but then?  We should eat them!!  I hear that that is what they do in those types of heathen countries from which you came illegally!!<br /><br />You know what, Mr. Bashir?<br /><br /><i>Shut the Fuck Up!!</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Cheers!!</i><br /><i><br /></i>Matt-Man<br /><br /><a href="mailto:mattmaniws@ymail.com">mattmaniws@ymail.com</a><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/MattMan_IWS" target="_blank">@mattman_iws</a></div>

Shut the Fuck Up with Hank Philpot Episode 2

Hello.  Hank Philpot here.  I’m a friend of Matt-Man.  I was going off on some things the other day to him and he said I could write down my...

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Combat: Ant and Roach Killer Review

<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QCC9Q9TSVjE/UV4p9IFI2_I/AAAAAAAAHZs/f_Ozd8tNB6M/s1600/ants+marching.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QCC9Q9TSVjE/UV4p9IFI2_I/AAAAAAAAHZs/f_Ozd8tNB6M/s1600/ants+marching.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's almost that time of year again when the weather starts to change and you cook outside out on the grill and have picnics in the park or even on a beach.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That's when the ants or roaches are on a picnic of their own even inside the house as well as outside! </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's crazy, so you spend all of this money for an exterminator.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why not try bait strips!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What are bait strips you ask?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ujg1yFnS_AA/UV4qLjfRmiI/AAAAAAAAHZ0/oYZZoJ0oN5E/s1600/combat+and+roach+killer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ujg1yFnS_AA/UV4qLjfRmiI/AAAAAAAAHZ0/oYZZoJ0oN5E/s320/combat+and+roach+killer.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's the new innovative product that I received courtesy of Combat and Purex Insider for review.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The strip is known to stop the entire colony in it's tracks of ants or roaches and destroys them.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The best thing about this product is that it's easy to apply, kills fast and doesn't even leave a mess.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tsgvVnR1xQg/UV4qUd1M3II/AAAAAAAAHZ8/qi5oyZE7wDo/s1600/ant+strips.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tsgvVnR1xQg/UV4qUd1M3II/AAAAAAAAHZ8/qi5oyZE7wDo/s320/ant+strips.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How does it work?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They will find the bait strip, eat the bait and bring it back to the nest and it will then destroy the entire nest by being exposed to the bait and voila problem solved!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>

Combat: Ant and Roach Killer Review

It's almost that time of year again when the weather starts to change and you cook outside out on the grill and have picnics in the park...

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Soft Scrub: 4 in 1 toilet bowl cleaner review and giveaway

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Winners are Apla Ash, June and Prettymamita! Congrats! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Stay tuned for more giveaways! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QnHUVkOwnto/UV4jN9ZfBXI/AAAAAAAAHZk/GuCYaAd_dVY/s1600/soft+scrub+4in1+toilet+bowl+cleaner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QnHUVkOwnto/UV4jN9ZfBXI/AAAAAAAAHZk/GuCYaAd_dVY/s320/soft+scrub+4in1+toilet+bowl+cleaner.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cleaning toilets can be a hassle especially when you get those nasty rings inside of the bowl. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Soft Scrub sent me this outstanding new product and it's a four in one toilet bowl cleaner.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What's that do you ask? It handles everything so you don't need to use tons of cleaning products to do the job.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's used to prevent buildup, cleans toilet, fights toilet rings and has lasting freshness up to four weeks! </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How does it work?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All you do is take the toilet bowl rim hanger and hang it on the inside of the toilet and releases the powerful cleaning solution with each flush!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cleaning the toilet has never been this easy before, thanks Purex Insider and Soft Scrub!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have 3 coupons to give away to 3 lucky readers for a free soft scrub product!</span><br /><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>*GIVEAWAY RULES*</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>1. What's the most important thing you look for in a toilet bowl cleaner? </b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>here are some examples.</b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>price, freshness lasts longer, prevents toilet rings etc.</b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Want an extra entry?</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>2.  Must Follow my blog.</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>3.Then also follow me via Twitter, here. <a href="https://twitter.com/kelli_bliss" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;"> https://twitter.com/kelli_bliss</a></b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>4. then Re tweet my post about the giveaway and if you tweet on your own make sure you use #4-in-1ToiletCare</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>5. leave me a link here to your tweet.</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>6. Like their face book page as well </b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><div style="color: black; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/SoftScrub?fref=ts"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">https://www.facebook.com/SoftScrub?fref=ts</span></a></div><div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="color: black; line-height: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Due to FCC Rules:</u></span></span></div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Soft Scrub brand provided me with a sample of their 4-in one toilet bowl cleaner in exchange for a review,however all opinions expressed here are my own.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>

Soft Scrub: 4 in 1 toilet bowl cleaner review and giveaway

Winners are Apla Ash, June and Prettymamita! Congrats!  Stay tuned for more giveaways!  Cleaning toilets can be a hassle especially when you...

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Foxy!

I met my sister for coffee after work tonight and then took a lovely stroll along the canal.<br /><br />After that I dropped my sister to the station for her train. Amy was a little early so we sat and chatted up the road from the station. Suddenly we saw a fox run across the road and then disappear in to the bushes. A fox in Dublin City!!! Amazing! What a great sight.<br /><br />Check out this crazy big spider I found in my house! <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjsfZOLLcqux10iQeRGZ4H5fvVx5E15heIScTaEt-mdHPGKTlXgbUGioSNfVi_FZJaMIipAeihuBVBcIyDrm6fEq849vf5Z-e54xVg-p1eLVQdcPFtBH-FEHHXahJ3mfMyvb9IrkTwbbBF/s640/blogger-image-1666559542.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjsfZOLLcqux10iQeRGZ4H5fvVx5E15heIScTaEt-mdHPGKTlXgbUGioSNfVi_FZJaMIipAeihuBVBcIyDrm6fEq849vf5Z-e54xVg-p1eLVQdcPFtBH-FEHHXahJ3mfMyvb9IrkTwbbBF/s640/blogger-image-1666559542.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf5dRJQjJojX7vzSA6f4GEs3ItYTlShCJogKHbB1bPDEceZHNYhRkc9upqMrfHWoCsQogUEBQNM3UjeylmgjWdjEVfrVBW-QvHhQh5edyKioizOObeN-t9q3f52-gsJ6TeAgAuDNU7piZP/s640/blogger-image-1045267214.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf5dRJQjJojX7vzSA6f4GEs3ItYTlShCJogKHbB1bPDEceZHNYhRkc9upqMrfHWoCsQogUEBQNM3UjeylmgjWdjEVfrVBW-QvHhQh5edyKioizOObeN-t9q3f52-gsJ6TeAgAuDNU7piZP/s640/blogger-image-1045267214.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE7zD7N1_AeTvM3_jheZrSTsELdDrVhCUp6Vq-pPJkVukibf-2p42fyTJf6fv3aOo7t7ULUgZ-tysiCXSYdivq9aTScxxjhSV5nqcHvjjAZVJIf-ZgCdM6T0B3NXzKLiYolWXpuYy3UNOi/s640/blogger-image-1858417359.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE7zD7N1_AeTvM3_jheZrSTsELdDrVhCUp6Vq-pPJkVukibf-2p42fyTJf6fv3aOo7t7ULUgZ-tysiCXSYdivq9aTScxxjhSV5nqcHvjjAZVJIf-ZgCdM6T0B3NXzKLiYolWXpuYy3UNOi/s640/blogger-image-1858417359.jpg" /></a></div>

Foxy!

I met my sister for coffee after work tonight and then took a lovely stroll along the canal. After that I dropped my sister to the station f...

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The Week I Had HIV - Slate Magazine

<base href="data:" class=""><div style="color: black; text-align: left; " class=""><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">"You should go ahead and assume that you have HIV," the doctor said.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">It was just before 7 on a frigid January evening. I was alone in my apartment in Washington, D.C.; I hadn't been expecting a call from the doctor. Several weeks earlier, I had come down with a fever and spent a good week laid up in bed. When I finally called my primary care physician, whom I'd chosen only a month earlier due to his proximity to my apartment, his receptionist signed me up for the next available appointment, which was a week away. Desperate, I went to a hospital, then an urgent care center, where a doctor suspected some kind of infection and prescribed a hefty dose of antibiotics. Within a few days, my fever had faded, but I decided to keep my appointment regardless. My new doctor, whom I'll call Dr. Smith, gave me a checkup, drew blood, and promised to run a full panel of tests. I hadn't realized that HIV would be one of them.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">I realized it now. "Your ELISA test went up to positive," Dr. Smith told me, "so it triggered a Western Blot, and that came back indeterminate. Let me tell you what that means. You're probably early on in your infection, so it's not showing completely yet. But these results, in my experience, always indicate HIV positivity. Why don't you come in tomorrow morning and we can get an RNA test and a confirmation?"</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">"A confirmation," I asked, "that I have HIV?"</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">"Yes," the doctor said. "We should definitely assume right now that you have HIV."</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">This assumption would be proven false after a week—a week of anxiety, anger, and, most of all, confusion. My HIV test showed indications of early infection, signs portentous enough to prompt a doctor to diagnose me on the spot. Yet as I received more tests and more information, it became increasingly clear that Dr. Smith's verdict was a misdiagnosis—that I did not have HIV.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">How can a test so common, so regulated, so accurate fail? How could I, a healthy adult with virtually no risk of infection, be misdiagnosed with HIV? And if it could happen to me, who else could it happen to?</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Most HIV tests don't test for HIV. Rather, the primary diagnostic tool, an immunoassay, tests for antibodies that react to HIV. (Earlier generations of immunoassays were called ELISAs, pronounced "Eliza"; most immunoassays today are a newer generation called EIAs, but many doctors still call them ELISAs as shorthand.) The immune system floods the body with these antibodies soon after HIV infection as it attempts, in vain, to fight off the virus.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">If an immunoassay test turns up HIV-related antibodies, it's considered "reactive." But a reactive immunoassay is not considered proof of an HIV infection. It must be followed up with a confirmatory test, usually a Western Blot. These tests also search for antibodies, but rather than turning "reactive" or "nonreactive," they detect about 10 different "viral bands." These bands are specific antibodies that bind to different components of the virus. If a Western Blot turns up two or more reactive bands, the patient is considered HIV-positive. If it turns up one band or several "equivocal" bands, the test is considered "indeterminate" and should be run again in about a month.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">That monthlong wait speaks to perhaps the most insidious aspect of the AIDS virus: It hides. After infection, the virus conceals itself completely for about 10 days—the so-called "eclipse period." (A person in the eclipse period is almost certainly not infectious.) Once that phase ends, the virus begins attacking the immune system, provoking the antibodies detectable by immunoassays and Western Blot tests. Yet the process of producing antibodies takes time, and so there is an additional "window period" between antibody production and immunoassay reactivity. For today's fourth-generation tests, the time between infection and detectability is about 15 days; for third-generation tests, some of which are still used, it's 25; second- and first-generation tests need 50 to 60 days of infection to detect any antibodies. Western Blots require about two months of infection before turning positive.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">This period of undetectability also happens to be the most highly infectious phase of the disease. Between 30 and 50 percent of all HIV transmissions occur during the window period. Thus, it presents perhaps the greatest challenge to combatting HIV: How can a highly infectious person be stopped from spreading the virus if he can't know he has it?</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">I received a third-generation immunoassay, which measured an antibody level of 1.23, just faintly reactive. (A level below 1.00 is considered nonreactive.) Following protocol, the lab then ran a Western Blot, which turned up "indeterminate." Dr. Smith told this to me when I went into the office the following morning. I asked for further explanation.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="pagebreak section"></div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'"><a name="pagebreak_anchor_2" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; visibility: hidden; " class=""></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; display: inline !important; float: none; " class=""></span></font><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">"Well," he said, looking at my lab report, "it's actually kind of a funny result. You have two nonviral bands but no viral ones. I've actually never seen a case like this."</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">"Could that mean I don't have HIV?" I asked.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">"Probably not," he told me. "It probably means you're just seroconverting."</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Seroconversion occurs during the window period of infection, when HIV attacks the immune system and it responds with antibodies. It is sometimes—though not always—accompanied by flu-like symptoms, such as high fever, respiratory distress, bodily aches, and night sweats. Seroconversion, in other words, is a hypochondriac's worst nightmare, masking a deadly virus with fairly routine symptoms. One distinction between seroconversion and a standard flu is swollen lymph nodes, a frequent symptom of acute HIV infection. But these can also be caused by a variety of other maladies.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">"You said you were sick recently, right?" Dr. Smith continued. "Had a fever? That may well have been seroconversion. If so, you'll test a true positive soon."</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">I had, in fact, learned about seroconversion the previous week, when a different doctor had floated the idea—just possibly because I am gay. When my fever refused to budge after a week, my boyfriend took me to the hospital, where I was hooked up to a saline drip and given a battery of (inconclusive) tests. After I introduced the doctor to my boyfriend, a strange look came over her face and she excused herself. About an hour later, she came back, pulled the curtain closed, and sat down next to my bed.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">"Before you go, one last possibility to consider is HIV," she said. "You do have a fever, which can be a symptom of acute HIV infection. It's called seroconversion."</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Somewhat alarmed, I asked if any of my other symptoms matched up.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">"No," she conceded. "Your lymph nodes are normal, and you don't have any respiratory issues. But still," she continued, lowering her voice and glancing toward my boyfriend, "it's something to consider."</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Floating such a drastic diagnosis may sound like an overreaction, but in fact, the doctor was merely following generally accepted guidelines for HIV diagnosis. The CDC considers homosexuality <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/testing/resources/reports/hiv_prevalence/high-risk.htm" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " class="">high-risk</a> in and of itself. Being monogamous and practicing safe sex doesn't matter much when you're a "man who has sex with men." What matters is your demographic. And my demographic makes me a likely vector for HIV.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Nine days after my visit to the hospital, my HIV test came back indeterminate.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Indeterminate Western Blot tests are a rare but intractable problem. Because they're used only as confirmatory tests, Western Blots have been the subject of much less technological advancement than immunoassays; it's more important to detect likely HIV than to confirm it beyond doubt. Some doctors and scientists see no place for Western Blots in the future of HIV testing; in fact, a few labs have begun to phase them out in favor for RNA tests. These search the blood for the virus itself, and have the immeasurable benefit of detecting HIV within only 15 days of infection. It is precisely because of this sensitivity and complexity, however, that RNA tests are rarely used as the first confirmation test: They remain prohibitively expensive for most labs and patients.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="pagebreak section"></div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'"><a name="pagebreak_anchor_3" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; visibility: hidden; " class=""></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; display: inline !important; float: none; " class=""></span></font><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">There are a number of reasons why a Western Blot could be indeterminate. Most indeterminate results arise from medical conditions that affect a patient's blood. Pregnancy, for instance, can cause a Western Blot to find traces of one viral band, called P-24. Autoimmune disorders can cause other viral bands to show up, as can the flu vaccine. Most of the time, these bands disappear in follow-up tests. If they don't but no further bands show up, the indeterminate result should be considered negative.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">But there's another kind of indeterminate result, one so rare that Dr. Smith had never seen or even heard about it. This result indicates the detection of nonviral bands. These signal an error in the test itself. To run a Western Blot test, lab technicians grow HIV in a cell culture, isolate parts of the virus called antigens, and then expose them to a patient's blood serum. If the patient is HIV-positive, antibodies in his blood serum react to certain antigens, producing viral bands. But very rarely, the test can malfunction: Lab technicians may insufficiently purify HIV, allowing debris from the cell culture as well as antigens to be exposed to the blood serum. In turn, this debris—rather than the HIV antigens—may react with antibodies. The result: nonviral bands.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">These bands do not indicate the presence of HIV. They don't even hint at it. In 1999, the National Confirmatory Testing Laboratory of the American Red Cross suggested that Western Blots with nonviral bands be considered immediate negatives, since "no individual exhibiting non-viral banding has been associated with either seroconversion detection of different HIV subtypes or other disease agents." The same year, the Association of Public Health laboratories stated that "non-viral bands should not be required to be reported [because] since 1991 no individual exhibiting non-viral banding has been associated with either early seroconversion, detection of different HIV-I subtypes, or other disease agents." And in 2000, the Blood Products Advisory Committee of the FDA proposed that nonviral band indeterminate Western Blots be considered completely HIV-negative, and thus safe to use in blood donations.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">All of these groups recognized the same fact: Nonviral bands show up as a result of a lab error, not a blood infection. Yet none of their recommendations were ever taken. Many doctors are unaware of the nonviral bands and think them to be a sign of early seroconversion. Because the problem is so rare, it has attracted little research or attention from the press. When a patient receives this anomalous result, he is usually thrust into the formal process of an HIV diagnosis.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">There are several ways to tell a patient he has HIV. Some doctors refuse to tell patients over the phone, choosing instead to make an appointment and tell them in person so they can quell the patient's panic and ask crucial follow-up questions. Others, however, believe that calling a patient and simply asking him to come in to discuss an HIV test is an obvious giveaway of an unwanted result, and that the news should simply be broken immediately, over the phone. This method has the benefit of ensuring that the patient knows his status whether or not he ever follows up. Rapid test immunoassays are quickly solving this conundrum: Clinicians can tell a patient his status in only 20 minutes. Rapid tests are popular in public health clinics but are not yet widely used by most primary care doctors, and so for now, the quandary remains.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Dr. Smith gave me his diagnosis over the phone and scheduled an appointment for the next morning. I spent that evening frozen in terror and confusion: There was simply no way, so far as I could see, that I could have been exposed to HIV. When I told my boyfriend, he was equally baffled: We each dug up the paperwork from our last two HIV tests, both of which were unambiguously negative. Nothing had occurred between those tests and this new one that could have exposed either of us to HIV. But this knowledge did little to allay the panic. We did not sleep that night.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">The next morning at my appointment, Dr. Smith reiterated his strong suspicion that I was early into HIV infection and drew blood for a confirmatory RNA test. But he also suggested a rapid test immunoassay, which, by that point, should have turned positive. I sat for 20 minutes waiting for a second line to appear: Rapid tests contain colloidal gold, which reacts to HIV antibodies by producing a red line on a small screen.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">As I waited for the test result, I began to think about what my life with HIV would look like. The virus, of course, is no longer a death sentence; those who have it can still live long, happy, mostly healthy lives. Moreover, the stigma once attached to HIV has largely dissipated, as HIV-positive people have rejected victim-blaming and empowered themselves both in their medical treatment and in the respect and decency they demand from society. The Internet provides myriad <a href="http://www.thebody.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " class="">resources</a> for those living with the infection, and virtual <a href="http://www.hivaidstribe.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " class="">support groups</a> foster a sense of community. No one has to face HIV alone, and no one should feel ashamed about being HIV-positive. If I did have HIV, I decided, I would not let it destroy my life. But I would much rather not have HIV.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">After 20 interminable minutes, no second red line showed up on my test—a negative result. My confusion grew deeper, though my spirits started to lift. I had now received one positive, one indeterminate, and one negative HIV test. I still didn't like my odds. But the situation seemed slightly brighter than it had the night before. Six days later, I received mailed lab results from the urgent care clinic. Unbeknownst to me, they had run a highly sensitive immunoassay—and it was completely negative. My blood was not testing positive for HIV. The immediate sensation was not one of comfort, or even relief. It was bewilderment. Nothing that had happened to me seemed to make sense. And when it abruptly stopped happening, that made little sense, either.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Finally, more than two weeks later, my RNA test came back negative. Dr. Smith didn't explain the delay—the test takes less than a week—nor did he attempt to explain his original misdiagnosis.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">"I have no idea why the Western Blot was indeterminate," he said. "But we should run one more immunoassay."</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">He ran one more immunoassay. It came back negative.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">In all, I received six HIV tests in the span of less than a month. Without insurance, the process would have cost more than $2,000; an RNA test alone is about $500. Had the recommendations of the Confirmatory Testing Laboratory, the Association of Public Health laboratories, and the Blood Products Advisory Committee been adopted more than a decade ago, I could have avoided the entire experience. My indeterminate test was the result of a lab error; nonviral Western Blots always are. For the foreseeable future, patients who receive nonviral Western Blots will be misdiagnosed. And like me, they will live, however briefly, with the belief that they have HIV.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">I asked Bernard Branson, the associate director for HIV laboratory diagnostics at the CDC, whether he thought indeterminate results would ever disappear completely.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">"No test is perfect," he told me, "not even RNA tests." The CDC is currently working to develop immunoassays that dramatically cut the rate of false positives, false negatives, and indeterminate results, but there may always be a few cases like mine, no matter how advanced the technology. It's hard to know how many people get a false positive result. A 2005 study suggested a false positive rate from an immunoassay plus Western Blot of 1 in 250,000, but a lot of false positives are unreported, and the problem has not been the subject of much research.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">"Why," he asked me in return, "are you interested?"</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">I explained to him my own experiences, my week of anxiety, and my hope that others in my situation might not face the same difficulties I did. As I spoke, I felt some of the confusion, the fear, the trepidation of that awful week lurch back into my mind. I had received my final confirmatory test more than a month earlier, but the pall of HIV still hung over my life in an ineffable way. Even now, several months later, I wake up some mornings with the same sudden panic I felt the moment I got the call.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">"How can something like this still happen?" I asked Branson. That, at heart, was the question that had been haunting me. I wanted an answer beyond biology, beyond virology, an explanation larger than lab mistakes and hasty diagnoses. I wanted that week of my life back, and if I couldn't get it, I wanted to know why I lost it in the first place—why a widely used, highly sensitive test could malfunction, be misinterpreted, and bring me to the brink of despair.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Branson considered my question for a moment.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">"How can it happen?" he said. "Bad luck."</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; " class="text parbase section"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">When I finished the interview, I scoured my room for all of the results I had received and tucked away during my month of HIV tests. Then I tore them up and threw them away.</font></div></div></div><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/04/hiv_test_misdiagnosis_how_indeterminate_western_blot_results_can_be_misdiagnosed.html" class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/04/hiv_test_misdiagnosis_how_indeterminate_western_blot_results_can_be_misdiagnosed.html</font></a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; " class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

The Week I Had HIV - Slate Magazine

"You should go ahead and assume that you have HIV," the doctor said. It was just before 7 on a frigid January evening. I was alone...

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