• syphilis

Editor,—Owing to a higher risk of HIV transmission during seroconversion and a rise in the transmission of resistant HIV,¹ it is becoming increasingly important to diagnose primary HIV infection (PHI).² However, the diagnosis can be difficult to make as there is a wide differential diagnosis and conventional HIV antibody tests do not become positive until an average of 8 weeks after infection. HIV p24 antigen tests become positive at an earlier stage and are often used as part of a combined screening test for suspected PHI. These combined tests detect p24 antigenaemia, anti-HIV-1, and anti-HIV-2 antibodies and can assist in earlier diagnosis of HIV. We would like to …