Get Hiv Testing Minimum Package Check List

Results from laboratory tests are given as negative, positive or indeterminate. Negative or non-reactive means you are HIV negative. You do not have HIV (based on the window period and no recent risks). Positive or reactive means the test shows you are HIV positive and you have HIV infection.

Most people who become infected with HIV will develop antibodies to the virus within 2 months. During this time, you may have HIV, but this test can't detect it. You may need to repeat the test more than 3 months after your possible exposure if your results are negative.

The HIV test you have taken has come back negative. This means that we could not find any HIV antibodies in your blood sample. The test highly accurate after 4 weeks, and almost 100% accurate after 8 weeks.

Normal results are negative. This means that no antibodies were found and that you may not be infected with HIV. Most people who become infected with HIV will develop antibodies to the virus within 2 months. During this time, you may have HIV, but this test can't detect it.

It takes time for HIV to be detected in the body Most people who've been exposed to HIV will test positive within one month after exposure, but a small number of people take up to three months.

Yes. Modern HIV tests are very accurate. A confirmatory test three months after the exposure is always recommended. This is because 5% of people take this long to show a positive result. A positive test result is routinely confirmed using a different type of test called western blot.

The first kind, the one used by most clinics as a screening test, looks for antibodies produced by the immune system against the virus. Detectable antibody levels to HIV usually develop within two to eight weeks (the average is actually about four weeks), but it sometimes takes longer.

An antigen/antibody test performed by a laboratory on blood from a vein can usually detect HIV infection 18 to 45 days after an exposure. Antigen/ antibody tests done with blood from a finger prick can take longer to detect HIV (18 to 90 days after an exposure).

If the number is less than 1.0 the result is negative. If the result is very close to 1.0 (higher than 0.90) the doctor may repeat the test. The word equivocal means that the interpretation of the results is not clear, so it is best to take the test again.

First-generation immunoassays detect IgG antibodies to HIV using whole viral lysate as the antigen in a standard indirect immunoassay format. These assays detect HIV infection in the same time frame as the Western blot, approximately 45 60 days following infection.