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Originally Posted by Ustwo
AIDS is not a killer, it allows other dieases to kill you
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This is a semantic argument akin to saying "Guns don't kill people."
Jackman and Hedderwick studied case definitions used in Uganda (published in Lancet in 1990) and did find scenarios leading to false positive reports, but these are in early cases. They could not begin to assess the magnitude. They also assumed self-reporting, which is not considered in WHO figures. It's not a "case" until it is presumptive (class 3), and even then it is open to confirmation by laboratory testing. Epidemiological methods allow for such diagnoses and are statistically sound.
The issue of seroconversion is an interesting one. Assuming it is seroconversion, which is a stretch, how long would it convey immunity and to what variants. Here in the US, West Nile seroconversion rates in a previously naive population run about 1-3%. Immunity lasts only about 2-3 years, tops. But I've seen the political hacks run with the notion that people are now immune forever and it's not a problem. (no, it's not the problem some were expecting...)