HIV Testing Glossary of Terms

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Acquired: Anything that is not present at birth but develops some time later. In medicine, the word "acquired" implies "new" or "added." An acquired condition is "new" in the sense that it is not genetic (inherited) and "added" in the sense that was not present at birth.
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Anonymous testing: Testing in which no name is used -- there is total anonymity -- to identify the person tested. For example, the State of Florida requires that each county have a site for anonymous HIV testing.

Antibody: An immunoglobulin, a specialized immune protein, produced because of the introduction of an antigen into the body, and which possesses the remarkable ability to combine with the very antigen that triggered its production.
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Antiviral: An agent that kills a virus or that suppresses its ability to replicate and, hence, inhibits its capability to multiply and reproduce.
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AZT: Zidovudine (formerly called azidothymidine [abbreviated AZT]), a drug used against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS. The brand name is Retrovir.
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Cancer: An abnormal growth of cells which tend to proliferate in an uncontrolled way and, in some cases, to metastasize (spread).
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CDC: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US agency charged with tracking and investigating public health trends. The stated mission of the CDC is "To promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability." The CDC is a part of the U.S. Public Health Services (PHS) under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: The US agency charged with tracking and investigating public health trends. The stated mission of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, commonly called the CDC, is "To promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability."
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Cure: 1. To heal, to make well, to restore to good health. Cures are easy to claim and, all too often, difficult to confirm.
2. A time without recurrence of a disease so that the risk of recurrence is small, as in the 5-year cure rate for malignant melanoma.
3. Particularly in the past, a course of treatment. For example, take a cure at a spa.
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ELISA: ELISA stands for "enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay." This is a rapid immunochemical test that involves an enzyme (a protein that catalyzes a biochemical reaction). It also involves an antibody or antigen (immunologic molecules).
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Essential: 1. Something that cannot be done without.
2. Required in the diet, because the body cannot make it. As in an essential amino acid or an essential fatty acid.
3. Idiopathic. As in essential hypertension. "Essential" is a hallowed term meaning "We don't know the cause."

FDA: The Food and Drug Administration, an agency within the U.S. Public Health Service, which is a part of the Department of Health and Human Services.
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Food and Drug Administration: The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Public Health Service, which is a part of the Department of Health and Human Services.
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Heterosexual: A person sexually attracted to persons of the opposite sex. Or a person who has sexual relations with the opposite sex. Colloquially known as "straight."
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HIV: Acronym for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, the cause of AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). HIV has also been called the human lymphotropic virus type III, the lymphadenopathy-associated virus and the lymphadenopathy virus. No matter what name is applied, it is a retrovirus. (A retrovirus has an RNA genome and a reverse transcriptase enzyme. Using the reverse transcriptase, the virus uses its RNA as a template for making complementary DNA which can integrate into the DNA of the host organism).
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HIV test: A test for the human immunodeficiency virus, the cause of AIDS. HIV tests are designed to detect antibodies to the HIV virus or the HIV virus itself.
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Human immunodeficiency virus: HIV, the cause of AIDS. HIV has also been called the human lymphotropic virus type III, the lymphadenopathy-associated virus and the lymphadenopathy virus. No matter what name is applied, it is a retrovirus. (A retrovirus has an RNA genome and a reverse transcriptase enzyme. Using the reverse transcriptase, the virus uses its RNA as a template for making complementary DNA which can integrate into the DNA of the host organism). Although the American research Robert Gallo at the National Institutes of Health believed he was the first to find HIV, it is now generally accepted that the French physician Luc Montagnier (1932-) and his team at the Pasteur Institute discovered HIV in 1983- 84.

Immune: Protected against infection. The Latin immunis means free, exempt.

Immune system: A complex system that is responsible for distinguishing us from everything foreign to us, and for protecting us against infections and foreign substances. The immune system works to seek and kill invaders.
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Immunodeficiency: Inability to mount a normal immune response. Immunodeficiency can be due to a genetic disease or acquired as in AIDS due to HIV.

Infection: The growth of a parasitic organism within the body. (A parasitic organism is one that lives on or in another organism and draws its nourishment therefrom.) A person with an infection has another organism (a "germ") growing within him, drawing its nourishment from the person.
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Intern: In medicine, a doctor who has completed medical school and is engaged in a year of additional training at a hospital before residency. An intern may, for example, be in pediatrics or medicine (internal medicine). The internship year is often quite rigorous.

Labor: Childbirth, the aptly-named experience of delivering the baby and placenta from the uterus to the vagina to the outside world. There are two stages of labor. During the first stage (called the stage of dilatation), the cervix dilates fully to a diameter of about 10 cm. In the second stage (called the stage of expulsion), the baby moves out through the cervix and vagina to be born.
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Laboratory: A place for doing tests and research procedures and preparing chemicals, etc. Although "laboratory" looks very like the Latin "laboratorium" (a place to labor, a work place), the word "laboratory" came from the Latin "elaborare" (to work out, as a problem, and with great pains), as evidenced by the Old English spelling "elaboratory" designating "a place where learned effort was applied to the solution of scientific problems."

Lancet: A small pointed knife; a surgical instrument with a short, wide, sharp-pointed, two-edged blade; a little knife with a small point. Lancets are used today to prick the skin (a finger, foot, ear lobe, etc.) to obtain a small quantity of capillary blood for testing.
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Pediatrics: "Pediatrics is concerned with the health of infants, children and adolescents, their growth and development, and their opportunity to achieve full potential as adults." (Richard E.Behrman in Nelson's Textbook of Pediatrics)
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Perinatal: Pertaining to the period immediately before and after birth. The perinatal period is defined in diverse ways. Depending on the definition, it starts at the 20th to 28th week of gestation and ends 1 to 4 weeks after birth. The word "perinatal" is a hybrid of the Greek "peri-" meaning "around or about" and "natal" from the Latin "natus" meaning "born."

Pharmacy: A location where prescription drugs are sold. A pharmacy is, by law, constantly supervised by a licensed pharmacist.

Pneumonia: Inflammation of one or both lungs with consolidation. Pneumonia is frequently but not always due to infection. The infection may be bacterial, viral, fungal or parasitic. Symptoms may include fever, chills, cough with sputum production, chest pain, and shortness of breath.

Pregnancy: The state of carrying a developing embryo or fetus within the female body. This condition can be indicated by positive results on an over-the-counter urine test, and confirmed through a blood test, ultrasound, detection of fetal heartbeat, or an X-ray. Pregnancy lasts for about nine months, measured from the date of the woman's last menstrual period (LMP). It is conventionally divided into three trimesters, each roughly three months long.
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Pregnant: The state of carrying a developing fetus within the body.
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Prenatal: Occurring or existing before birth.
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Public health: The approach to medicine that is concerned with the health of the community as a whole. Public health is community health. It has been said that: "Health care is vital to all of us some of the time, but public health is vital to all of us all of the time."
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Saliva: a watery secretion in the mouth produced by the salivary glands that aids in the digestion of food. Saliva also serves to moisten and cleanse the mouth, including the tongue and teeth, and contains substances that can play a role in the prevention of infection. Saliva aids digestion by moistening food and contains enzymes that begin the digestion process. Also known as spit.

Syndrome: A set of signs and symptoms that tend to occur together and which reflect the presence of a particular disease or an increased chance of developing a particular disease.
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Therapy: The treatment of disease.
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Tuberculosis: A highly contagious infection caused by the bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Abbreviated TB. Tubercles (tiny lumps) are a characteristic finding in TB. Diagnosis may be made by skin test, which if positive should will be followed by a chest X-ray to determine the status (active or dormant) of the infection. Tuberculosis is more common in people with immune system problems, such as AIDS, than in the general population. Treatment of active tuberculosis is mandatory by law in the US, and should be available at no cost to the patient through the public health system. It involves a course of antibiotics and vitamins that lasts about six months. It is important to finish the entire treatment, both to prevent reoccurrence and to prevent the development of antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis. Most patients with tuberculosis do not need to be quarantined, but it is sometimes necessary.
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Urine: Liquid waste. The urine is a clear, transparent fluid. It normally has an amber color. The average amount of urine excreted in 24 hours is from 40 to 60 ounces (about 1,200 cubic centimeters). Chemically, the urine is mainly an aqueous (watery) solution of salt (sodium chloride) and substances called urea and uric acid. Normally, it contains about 960 parts of water to 40 parts of solid matter. Abnormally, it may contain sugar (in diabetes), albumen (a protein) (as in some forms of kidney disease), bile pigments (as in jaundice), or abnormal quantities of one or another of its normal components.

Viral: Of or pertaining to a virus. For example, "My daughter has a viral rash."

Virus: A microorganism smaller than a bacteria, which cannot grow or reproduce apart from a living cell. A virus invades living cells and uses their chemical machinery to keep itself alive and to replicate itself. It may reproduce with fidelity or with errors (mutations)-this ability to mutate is responsible for the ability of some viruses to change slightly in each infected person, making treatment more difficult.
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Western blot: A technique in molecular biology, used to separate and identify proteins.
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Zidovudine: See: AZT.