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If HIV tests are not tracking an AIDS-causing virus, what are they detecting?

According to the Perth Group (among others), HIV tests are

not specific to HIV antibodies but rather reflect

physiological or oxidative stress,

which can arise from a wide range of challenges to health.

All the data from HIV tests are consistent with the Perth Group's view.

The frequency of positive HIV tests, F(HIV), depends on age, sex, race,

and health in a way that reflects physiology, not sexual behavior or

the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs):

F(HIV) is 4 times greater for newborns than for children between about 1 and the teens;
that is not so with STDs.

F(HIV) increases with age from the teens into middle age and then declines again;
whereas with STDs, adolescents are at greatest risk.

F(HIV) changes with age much less among females than among males;
no such regularity is seen with STDs.

F(HIV) is always greater among males than among females, except in the younger teens, when females sometimes show a higher F(HIV) than males;
no such regularity is seen with STDs.

F(HIV) always increases among ethnic and racial groups in this sequence:
Asian < White < Native American < Hispanic < Black
in the ratios
~0.65 < 1.00 < ~1.6 < ~ 2.7 < ~ 5
In other words, Asians are always “HIV-infected” 2/3 as often as Whites, whereas Blacks are always “infected” 5 times more than Whites;
no such semi-quantitative regularity is seen with STDs.

F(HIV) is greater, the lower is the general state of health
of the tested group. Repeat blood donors test positive most rarely,
first-time donors somewhat more frequently,
military personnel even more frequently,
members of the Job Corps considerably more frequently, and
medical patients being treated for reasons unconnected to HIV or AIDS nevertheless test HIV-positive more often than do healthy people--
even when the medical condition is psychiatric.
So do homeless youth, and people in prison.
Drug abusers test positive much more often than other people.

F(HIV) is greater, the higher is the population density.
If F(HIV) measures challenges to health, that makes sense:
all contagious diseases spread more easily in dense groups,
and densely populated areas also have more environmental health challenges like smog and pollutants of various sorts.
But the incidence of STDs is not uniformly greater in more densely populated areas.