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Dear Patty,
 
I was diagnosed with dermatitis herpitiformis 8 years ago, have no CD symptoms
but  was recently diagnosed with Lupus.  My DH has been controlled with a
sulpha drug which my Dr. wants me to discontinue because sulpha  drugs are
dangerous for Lupus patients.  The only option I have to control the Dh is a
GF diet, hence my contact with St. Johns.  Upon reading your message I
remembered reading the following in LIVING WITH LUPUS by Sheldon Paul Blau,
M.D. with Dodi Schultz on page 34
 
   "False - positive AIDS test. In a few instances, false-positive tests for
infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the cause of AIDS,
have occurred in individuals who later turned out not to have AIDS but to
have lupus.      The commonly used HIV screening test, because it is
inexpensive and easy to perform, is the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay,
or ELISA; although the test is quite sensitive, it is not very specific, and
false-positive results with ELISA are not uncommon.  Other, more specific
tests are available, notably the Western blot test--which is more costly and
requires more expertise but should be used to confirm doubtful positive
results on ELISA testing.  Sometimes, even that precaution may not be
completely dependable: In late 1992, a team of Venezuelan rheumatologists
reported a case in which the Western blot test was also weakly positive in a
patient with lupus and without AIDS.  In early 1993, another such case was
reported in a New York lupus patient being evaluated for a kidney
transplant; two other tests, polymerase chain reaction and viral culture,
proved the earlier test to be falsely positive.'
 
   Further more , on page 48, the book specifically sites HTLV-1 as a
"retrovirus" and states " now there are hints that a retrovirus may be
involved in lupus, and in a related disorder as well."  On page 50, "In
early 1992 researchers at the University of Texas in San Antonio announced
that they found antibodies to proteins that are components of HIV in
approximately 30 percent of a group of Sjogrens syndrome patients and in a
similar proportion of a group of lupus patients.  There was no indication
that they had antibodies to HIV itself, only to certain proteins; as the
investigators explained, the findings suggested that they had developed
antibodies to an HIV-related virus--that is, another retrovirus".
 
    As we both know cd, dh, lupus. Sjogrens, etc.. are all autoimmune
diseases that seem to show up on one anothers lists of complications.  What
a bag of worms!!!  Good luck!
 
Sharon Kivnik