ANTIBODY-POSITIVE

adjective (Health and Fitness) Having had a positive result in a blood test for the Aids virus HIV; at risk of developing Aids. Etymology: Formed by compounding; having a positive test for antibodies to HIV. Long before Aids, antibody-positive was in technical use for the result of any blood test for antibodies to a virus; it is only in popular usage that it has become specialized almost exclusively to the Aids sense. History and Usage: This sense of antibody-positive arose during the mid eighties, when fear of Aids was at its height and much publicity was given to it. Since infection with HIV could precede the onset of any Aids symptoms by a period of years, and only some of those who were tested positive would in fact develop symptoms at any time, health officials emphasized the need to avoid over-reacting to a positive test and tried (with varying degrees of success) to prevent discrimination against those who were known to be antibody-positive. The adjective for a person found not to have been infected or a test with a negative result is antibody-negative, but this is less commonly found in popular sources. Without testing facilities at, say, clinics for sexually transmitted diseases, 'high-risk' donors might give blood simply to find out their antibody status (and possibly transmit the virus while being antibody-negative). New Statesman 27 Sept. 1985, p. 14 This longstanding concentration on the clinical manifestations of AIDS rather than on all stages of HIV infection (i.e., from initial infection to seroconversion, to an antibody-positive asymptomatic stage, to full-blown AIDS) has had the...effect of misleading the public. Susan Sontag Aids & its Metaphors (1989), p. 31