The Nation - News from Sept. 17, 1987

Scientists say they have developed a simple blood test to distinguish between infection with the AIDS virus and related viruses, to help track infections in Africa and elsewhere. Current tests to distinguish the viruses are cumbersome, but the new test is simple enough to hold the promise of widespread screening, said Erling Norrby of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He reports on the test in today’s issue of the British journal Nature with Swedish colleagues and scientists at the Johnson & Johnson Biotechnology Center and the Research Institute of Scripps Clinic, both in La Jolla, and the National Laboratory of Public Health in Guinea Bissau.