Hiv Tests Used In British Columbia
Antibody tests
These tests measure antibodies to HIV. Antibodies are proteins made by the immune system when the body is exposed to an infection. It takes time for the body to make antibodies after it is exposed to HIV, and different people make antibodies at different rates.
The window period for antibody tests is between 3 weeks and 3 months. Up to 95% of people will have antibodies after 6 weeks, and 99% of people will have antibodies after 3 months.
The point-of-care HIV test is an antibody tests offered in some locations in BC. The HIV Confirmatory Assay is an antibody test used to confirm a preliminary positive HIV result.
Antigen tests
The 4th generation Enzyme Immunoassay Test test is a combined antigen / antibody test. The antigen, or viral protein, used to detect HIV is called p24 antigen. This p24 antigen shows up in the blood soon after a person gets HIV.
The 4th generation EIA test is the standard HIV laboratory screening test used in BC. Ninety-nine percent of these tests will be positive 6 weeks after a person gets HIV.
NAAT
This test looks for the genetic material of HIV in the blood. It is also known as the “early HIV test” or “RNA test”. Ninety percent of NAATs are positive 10 to 12 days after a person gets HIV, and over 99% are positive after 6 weeks.
The RNA NAAT can be specially ordered by doctors or nurses if someone has had a recent high-risk exposure to HIV and/or they are having symptoms that are highly indicative of HIV.
How Long Does Hiv Test Take
Regardless of the type of screening test used, a positive result will require follow-up testing to establish an HIV diagnosis. If you test positive for HIV on both the initial and follow-up testing, it means you are HIV-positive. It usually takes a few days to a few weeks to get results of an HIV test, although some rapid HIV tests can produce results in about 20 minutes.
- Nucleic acid tests can usually tell you if you are infected with HIV 10 to 33 days after an exposure
- Antigen/antibody HIV test can usually detect HIV infection 18 to 45 days after an exposure
- Antibody HIV test can usually take 23 to 90 days to reliably detect HIV infection
Rapid HIV testing
Several rapid tests offer highly accurate information within as little as 20 minutes. These tests look for antibodies to HIV using a sample of your blood, drawn from a vein or a finger prick, or fluids collected on a treated pad that is rubbed on your upper and lower gums. A positive reaction on a rapid test requires a confirming blood test.
Home HIV testing
There are two HIV home test kits approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for home use. Both are HIV antibody tests.
Home testing involves two options:
- Mailing a blood sample to a testing center and calling in for your results
- Collecting an oral fluid sample at home and using a kit to test it yourself
Both methods ensure anonymity and offer confidential counseling and referral to follow-up testing sites if your test results are positive.
How Do You Get Hiv
HIV is a sexually transmitted infection. The most common way for someone to get it is through a sexual activity where you exchange bodily fluids. This activity includes vaginal, oral and anal sex. However, you can contract the virus in other ways, including:
- Sharing needles with an infected person to take drugs.
- Passing between a mother and her unborn child.
- Rarely, from a blood transfusion .
A lot of misinformation exists about how you can get HIV. You cannot contract HIV from:
- Air or water.
- Touch, such as shaking hands, hugging or social, closed-mouth kissing.
- Pets or insects, such as mosquitoes and ticks.
Read Also: Cookie Johnson Hiv Positive
How Can I Get Tested
To get tested, you can:
- Ask your doctor to test you.
- Go to a local clinic or community health center.
- Go to National HIV and STD Testing Resources to find a testing center near you.
- Buy a test at a pharmacy and do the test at home.
Many testing centers will do an HIV test for free. Ask if there is a fee before you go for testing. In most states you do not need a parent’s permission to get tested for HIV. And you can buy the test at the pharmacy without a parent.
Why Should I Get Tested If I Am Pregnant
If you are pregnant, it is important to determine if you have HIV so you can be treated. Treatment of HIV-infected mothers during pregnancy, precautions at birth, and avoiding breast-feeding can minimize the risk of passing the infection from mother to child. If you are already taking HIV medications when you become pregnant, you should continue to do so during pregnancy and labor and delivery. If you are not taking HIV medications or have a high viral load during pregnancy, giving the antiretroviral drug zidovudine intravenously during labor and delivery and also to the newborn twice a day by mouth for 6 weeks reduces the rate of transmission from 25-33% to about 1-2%.
You May Like: Can Hiv Lay Dormant
Figure : Time To Develop Antibodies *
95% people by week 4, 99% by week 6 and more than 99.9% by week 12
Figure 8 shows the range of times that people can take to respond to HIV infection.
The earliest marker is HIV viral load. This is in the first weeks after infection . A high viral load is related to seroconversion symptoms.
The first HIV protein that can be measured is p24 .
Viral load and p24 tests are not accurate for diagnosing early HIV if the results are negative.
An HIV antibody response can be detected as early as two weeks in a few people and in more than 99.9% of people by 12 weeks. An antibody test at 4 weeks will detect 95% of infections.
Antibody testing at 4 weeks can give you a good indication of your HIV status, but you need a test at 12 weeks after the exposure to be considered HIV negative.
Who Will Know The Results Of My Testing
It depends on where you get your testing. Testing sites have different privacy rules. Ask about privacy rules at your testing site so you understand whether anyone else will know you got tested or see your results.
If you go to an anonymous test site, only you know the results. No written record of the test result is kept.
If you go to a confidential test site, the results will go in your medical record. Positive results are sent to the state or local health department. Your insurance company will have access to your results. Depending on the state you live in, your parent or guardian may be contacted.
Read Also: How Long Can Hiv Lay Dormant
Outreach Hiv Testing In Developed Countries
Mobile testing units, syringe exchange programs, and community testing events place a premium on test portability, ease of administration, flexibility in specimen type, and rapid turnaround of results, all of which make point-of-care HIV tests an obvious, frequent choice. However, longer window periods and lower sensitivities with point-of-care HIV assays compared with their laboratory-based counterparts are important trade-offs to consider. Because some outreach testing populations may be more likely to have recent HIV infection, IgM/IgG-sensitive point-of-care HIV tests should be prioritized over those capable of detecting IgG only. Whenever logistically feasible, serum or plasma should be tested instead of whole blood, and consideration should be given to sending a specimen for laboratory platform testing in addition to the point-of-care HIV test. Oral transudate should be used as a specimen only when obtaining blood is impractical or undesirable 15). Patients and testing clients considering oral HIV self-testing should be counseled about its longer window period compared with either blood-based point-of-care HIV tests or laboratory-based assays.
How Can I Get Tested For Hiv
There are a few different ways you can get access to HIV screening:
- A blood or saliva sample can be collected in a healthcare practitioner’s office or a local clinic and sent to a laboratory for testing. Certain testing centers provide either anonymous or confidential HIV testing and counseling. You can also contact your state or local health department to find out where testing may be available. To find a testing site near you, visit the National HIV and STD Testing Resources webpage.
- In these same settings, there may be a rapid test available, with results that are generated in 20 minutes or less.
- There is a home test for HIV that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration . It uses a saliva sample and results are available in about 20 minutes.
The home test has two limitations:
1. The saliva test is less sensitive than a blood test, so the home test may miss some cases of HIV that a blood test would detect.2. The home test is not as accurate when it is performed at home by a lay person compared to when it is performed by a trained healthcare professional. However, the convenience of home testing might encourage some people who might otherwise be reluctant to go to a healthcare practitioner or clinic to learn their HIV status.
Read Also: Does Cookie Johnson Have Hiv
What Happens If The Test Is Positive
If you receive a positive result, you will want to work with your healthcare provider on a treatment plan. Your healthcare provider will determine how far HIV has progressed and recommend medicines to help you manage it.
You will also want to talk about your diagnosis with your sexual partner. If you and your partner have had unprotected sex, you could have transmitted the virus to them. They should get tested, too.
Who Else Should Get Hiv Tests
The CDC recommends that everyone between ages 13 and 64 get tested at least once even if you have no risk factors for HIV. Other people who should get tested at certain times or regularly include:
Pregnant women. HIV can be passed from mother to child in the womb. HIV testing is part of pregnancy care, but you have to agree to do it. If you test positive, antiretroviral therapy can protect your unborn baby from getting HIV. This works extremely well if you start treatment early.
People in a high-risk group. Get tested at least every 12 months if you inject drugs, work in the sex trade, have multiple sex partners, or do anything else that puts you at a higher risk.
If you are a sexually active gay or bisexual man, consider testing every 3 months. This is especially important if you donât know whether or not your partner or partners have HIV. Most infections happen in men who have sex with other men, and many donât know if they have HIV or not.
CDC: âTesting,â âHIV Risk Reduction Tool: The Window Period,â âHIV Risk Reduction Tool: Post-exposure Prophylaxis for Preventing HIV after Exposure,â âAn Opt-Out Approach to HIV Screening,â âHIV and Gay and Bisexual Men.â
NAM AIDSMap : âFalse negative results on HIV tests.â
HIV.gov: âHIV Testing Overview,â âHow Can You Tell If You Have HIV?â
San Francisco AIDS Foundation: âThe Questions about PrEP.â
GMHC: âHIV/AIDS Basics,â âThe GMHC Testing Center.â
Avert: “When to Get Tested for HIV.”
You May Like: How Many People Have Hiv In Atlanta
Importance Of Hiv Testing
If you have the virus, finding out quickly means you can start treatment right away so you can feel better and live a long, full life. You can also take steps so you don’t pass HIV to other people.
Pregnant women should get tested because early treatment means you probably wonât pass it to your baby.
How Soon Can Hiv Be Detected In Blood
Human immunodeficiency virus, better known as HIV, is a virus that attacks the bodys immune system. It is usually contracted through contact with bodily fluids such a blood, semen and vaginal fluids. It can be transmitted through sexual contact or by sharing needles with an HIV-infected person. HIV cannot be spread by saliva or touching someone with HIV. If left untreated, HIV can lead to the development of AIDS , which is the most severe stage of HIV.
What tests are available for HIV?
The only way to know for sure whether you have HIV is to get tested. The CDC recommends anyone ages 13-64 be tested at least once a year and with any new sexual partner.
There are three types of tests available to check for HIV:
- A nucleic acid testis a blood test that looks for the virus in the blood. After blood is drawn from a vein and sent to a lab, the blood is tested to see if a person has HIV and see how much of the virus is present, which is known as HIV viral load. Results may take several days to be available.
- Antibody testsonly look for antibodies present in someones blood or saliva. Your healthcare provider can check for antibodies by drawing blood from a vein, which is then sent to a lab for testing. These test results may take several days to be available. For rapid results, they can perform a finger prick or take a swab of oral fluid, and results are available within 30 minutes.
HIV Prevention:
- Getting tested yearly and with every new sexual partner
- Condom use
Don’t Miss: Does Hiv Cause Hair Loss
How Soon Do Std Symptoms Appear
How long it takes for an STD to show up in testing is entirely dependent on the STD itself, how long its own incubation period is, and your own bodys immune response. You can test for some STDs, like chlamydia, only a day after potential exposure. Meanwhile, HIV and syphilis can take a month or more before you can accurately test for them. Its all pretty confusing but lucky for you, we created a nifty little chart that breaks down each STDs average incubation period.
Why Should Someone Get Tested For Hiv
If someone is infected with HIV, it’s important to know because:
- Starting medicines right away can keep a person stay healthy for a long time.
- There are ways to stop the spread of HIV to others, such as using a condom and taking medicines.
- A pregnant woman who is infected can get treatment to try to prevent passing HIV to her baby.
Another reason to get tested is peace of mind: A negative test result can be a big relief for someone who is worried about being infected.
Read Also: Does Nba Youngboy Have Hiv
How To Test For Hiv
HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. It is the virus that can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Unlike some other viruses, the human body cannot get rid of HIV. That means that once you have HIV, you have it for life. An estimated 1.1 million people in the United States are living with HIV, including about 162,500 people who are unaware of their status. About 1 in 7 people in the United States who have HIV dont know they have it. Approximately 40% of new HIV infections are transmitted by people who are living with undiagnosed HIV. For those who are living with undiagnosed HIV, testing is the first step in maintaining a healthy life and reducing the spread of HIV. And the only way to know for sure whether you have HIV is to get tested. Testing associated with HIV/AIDS involves detecting HIV antigen and/or the affected persons response to HIV , measuring the amount of virus, or detecting the viral nucleic acid. The goals of HIV testing are to:
- Screen for and diagnose HIV infection
- Measure and monitor the amount of virus in the persons blood
- Evaluate HIVs resistance to available drug therapies
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 get tested at least once as a part of their routine health care 1). People with higher risk factors, such as more than one sex partner, other STDs, gay and bisexual men and individuals who inject drugs should be tested at least once a year.
Some Hiv Facts You Must Know
How long can HIV go undetected? It is a common question, but people have other concern and questions regarding HIV and AIDs. For instance:
1. Is it possible for tops to get HIV?
The term ‘tops’ refers to the insertive partner in anal sex. Some people believe that male tops are at a lowered risk of getting HIV. A study has confirmed it, stating that tops have 86% reduction in their risk of contracting the infection.
2. Do you have AIDS when you are tested HIV positive?
No, you do not. Millions of people infected with HIV never develop AIDS, which is the last stage of HIV disease. You can avoid having AIDS through regular medical care and proper treatment to strengthen your immune system.
3. Will you die because of HIV?
No, you will not at least not anytime soon. Yes, there will be complications, but that is true for any chronic condition. With modern-day medications and resources, people with HIV can hope to live a near-normal lifespan. You may be at an increased risk of developing osteoporosis and other age-related conditions early, but you can certainly improve the quality of your life through proper medical care.
4. How you can and cannot get HIV?
Don’t Miss: Does Walgreens Do Hiv Testing
Importance Of Hiv Testing For Prevention Of Hiv Infection
People with HIV who are aware of their status can get HIV treatment and remain healthy for many years. Studies show that the sooner people start treatment after diagnosis, the more they benefit from ART. Treatment with ART reduces the amount of HIV in the blood , reduces HIV-related illness, and helps prevent transmission to others. People with HIV who take HIV medicine as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to HIV-negative sex partners.
People who get tested and learn they dont have HIV can also make decisions about sex, drug use, and health care that can protect them from HIV. For people at risk for HIV, taking HIV medicine called pre-exposure prophylaxis is highly effective for preventing HIV.