Oliver Benjamin
going into finding cures and therapies, the range is changing greatly.
Ten years ago I would say that a person found to be infected with the
HIV virus would be lucky to live ten years, but now we are expecting
average life expectancies of fifteen, twenty years, even more, before
AIDS has its way with them. A full cure may never be realized, but I
think that it is possible that soon HIV patients may live their full lives
without ever manifesting the symptoms of AIDS.”
“Really?” I sighed with some relief.
“Why do you ask? Is there someone you know who is carrying
the virus?”
I nodded. “I do. Me.”
The doctor looked puzzled. “No,” he said. “No, that is not
possible.” He took a moment to review my paperwork. “It is routine
for us to give serious patients a comprehensive blood test and you
were found to be…” he scanned the pages once more, “…negative.”
“Negative?” I gasped.
He smiled, “I’m happy to say.”
“But I was given a test in Israel. I tested positive,” I insisted.
“Ah yes. The test has been known to be imperfect. One out of
every few hundred reads a false-positive. Normally they would have
checked you again in such circumstances.”
“They didn’t have a chance to,” I explained, “I ran away.”
I insisted that he give me another test, and he agreed, but once
I started looking through the mail my mother had left me, I realized
that it would be unnecessary to wait for the results. There were five
unopened letters from Ramat Mechasel in the pile.
I only needed to read the first one:
To whom it may concern:
We recently administered a blood test to a Mr. Jacob Rippy to
determine the presence of the Human Immunodeficiency virus
(HIV), the same virus that leads to the Auto Immune Deficiency
Syndrome (AIDS). Due to an error on our part, we informed him
that he was a carrier of the virus. We now know that this is false, as
his results had been mixed up with those of another test.
Unfortunately, we realized this error before we were able to
rectify the situation, and we now believe that Mr. Rippy is
misinformed about the status of his health. It is imperative that he
be informed of the accurate test results before anything drastic is to
occur. We have already sent an acquaintance of his to a spot in
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