Editing Infection (section)

===Indication of tests===
[[File:BGSU COVID-19 Drive-Thru Testing Site Close Up.jpg|thumb|A temporary drive-in testing site for COVID-19 set up with tents in a parking lot]]
There is usually an [[indication (medicine)|indication]] for a specific identification of an infectious agent only when such identification can aid in the treatment or prevention of the disease, or to advance knowledge of the course of an illness prior to the development of effective therapeutic or preventative measures. For example, in the early 1980s, prior to the appearance of [[Zidovudine|AZT]] for the treatment of [[AIDS]], the course of the disease was closely followed by monitoring the composition of patient blood samples, even though the outcome would not offer the patient any further treatment options. In part, these studies on the appearance of [[HIV]] in specific communities permitted the advancement of [[hypotheses]] as to the route of transmission of the virus. By understanding how the disease was transmitted, resources could be targeted to the communities at greatest risk in campaigns aimed at reducing the number of new infections. The specific [[serological]] diagnostic identification, and later [[genotypic]] or molecular identification, of HIV also enabled the development of hypotheses as to the [[Time|temporal]] and [[geographic]]al origins of the virus, as well as a myriad of other hypothesis.<ref name=Sherris/> The development of molecular diagnostic tools have enabled physicians and researchers to monitor the efficacy of treatment with [[anti-retroviral drugs]]. Molecular diagnostics are now commonly used to identify HIV in healthy people long before the onset of illness and have been used to demonstrate the existence of people who are genetically resistant to HIV infection. Thus, while there still is no cure for AIDS, there is great therapeutic and predictive benefit to identifying the virus and monitoring the virus levels within the blood of infected individuals, both for the patient and for the community at large.