What Does A Negative Result Mean
If your HIV test result comes back negative it means that the test hasnt found signs of HIV infection.
However, if you have been at risk since your last test then youll need to test again. Also remember that most HIV tests can only detect HIV one to three months after exposure. If you were at risk more recently than this you will need to test again to be sure that your results are accurate.
Using a condom is the best way to protect yourself from HIV.
Be aware that testing negative for HIV doesnt mean that your partners are HIV-negative. HIV tests only apply to the person who took the test. If any of your previous or current partners are worried about HIV, encourage them to take a test.
How Do I Get My Results
Depending on the type of test you take, you will have to wait either a few minutes for your results , or anywhere between a couple of days or weeks . Your healthcare professional should explain how you will get your test results. If you are self-testing, there will be information on how to read your results with your test kit.
If your result is negative, the health centre will contact you to let you know that you tested negative. All positive and will have to be checked again, so you will be asked to come back for further testing.If you get a positive result after using a self-test kit you will need to go to a healthcare clinic.
Testing Positive On Nucleic Acid Tests
In addition to antibody tests, we also have HIV tests that detect viral RNA not necessarily live virus, but parts of the virus genetic material. These are called nucleic acid tests, and they are able to detect very early HIV infections. These tests are not used as often for screening as antibody tests , because results take longer and the test is more expensive. Usually, RNA tests are used to confirm an HIV positive diagnosis after someone tests positive on an antibody test or to see if a person is responding well to treatment.
Some of these viral detection tests are able to detect virus at very low levels. Some research HIV RNA assays can measure HIV RNA levels down to the single copy levels.
We commonly say someone is undetectable if they have a viral load less than 20 copies/mL or 50 copies/mL. Research studies have defined undetectable as any viral load less than 200 copies/mL.
So even if a person has a viral load less than 50 copies/mL or 20 copies/mL, viral RNA will still be detected with one of these viral detection tests.
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Understanding A Positive Result
What does a positive result mean?
If you use any type of antibody test and have a positive result, you will need another test to confirm your results.
- If you test in a community testing program or take a self-test and its positive, you should go to a health care provider to get follow-up testing.
- If your test is done in a health care setting or a lab and its positive, the lab will conduct the follow-up testing, usually on the same blood sample as the first test.
If the follow-up test is also positive, it means you have HIV .
It is important that you start medical care and begin HIV treatment as soon as you are diagnosed with HIV. Antiretroviral therapy or ART is recommended for all people with HIV, regardless of how long theyve had the virus or how healthy they are. HIV medicine works by lowering the amount of virus in your body to very low levels. HIV medicine can make the viral load so low that a test cant detect it . HIV medicine slows the progression of HIV and helps protect your immune system. If you take HIV medicine as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load, you can stay healthy for many years. Having an undetectable viral load also helps prevent transmitting the virus to others. For example, if you have an undetectable viral load, you have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to an HIV-negative partner through sex.
Hiv Positive Dating Negative
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What If My Baby Is Hiv
With excellent health care, the mother-to-child HIV transmission rate is almost zero.
In the very rare case, your baby is HIV-positive, there are many supportive professionals and organisations that can help you during this difficult time.
You can expect welcoming, non-judgemental and compassionate care for yourself and your baby.
Medical care for babies with HIV is highly specialised. Early diagnosis means that a baby can begin effective treatment and have every chance for a long, healthy life.
What Is It Used For
An HIV test is used to find out if you have been infected with HIV. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS . Most people with HIV don’t have AIDS. People with AIDS have an extremely low number of immune cells and are at risk for life-threatening illnesses, including dangerous infections, a severe type of pneumonia, and certain cancers, including Kaposi sarcoma.
If HIV is found early, you can get medicines to protect your immune system. HIV medicines may prevent you from getting AIDS.
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Why Do I Have Hiv Symptoms And Test Negative
Antiretrovirus antibodies are usually detected in HIV tests. In other words, if a person has contracted the virus, they will usually have a negative result on their test before they begin seroconversion. During seroconversion, they may also experience flu-like symptoms, such as a fever and body aches.
Getting Pregnant When A Male Partner Is Hiv
If a male partner is HIV-positive, a procedure called sperm washing can be used to conceive. During this procedure a machine separates sperm cells from the seminal fluid, which can carry the virus. The washed sperm is then used to fertilise the womans egg using a special catheter inserted into the uterus.
If the male partner is on effective treatment and has a stable undetectable viral load, there is no risk of HIV transmission.
In-vitro-fertilisation may also be an option.
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Best Practices For Retesting
HIV tests cannot detect whether a person has the virus immediately after exposure. This is because there is a window period before a test can detect the presence of HIV in the blood. If a person tests during this time, they will likely receive a negative result.
Aside from those mentioned above, hiv.gov recommends the following people to get tested often:
- people who have had sex with an HIV-positive person
- people who have had more than one sexual partner
- people engaged in sex work, or those who exchange sex for money or drugs
- people diagnosed with or receiving treatment for another STI
- people who have had sex with someone who has experienced any of the above
- people who have a sexual partner whose sexual history is unknown
Should Pregnant Women Get Tested For Hiv
CDC recommends that all pregnant women get tested for HIV so that they can begin taking HIV medicines if they are HIV positive. Women with HIV take HIV medicines during pregnancy and childbirth to reduce the risk of perinatal transmission of HIV and to protect their own health. For more information, read the HIVinfo fact sheet on Preventing Perinatal Transmission of HIV.
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Can A Hiv Test Be Wrong
There is no doubt that HIV tests are very accurate, however they do not reach 100% accuracy. If, in fact, a test result of a false negative indicates that the person is HIV positive, then the person is HIV positive. Most false test results are generated within the first ten weeks after an infection, during the window period between those three times.
Hiv And Getting Pregnant
If you are HIV-positive and become pregnant, or would like to have a baby, it is strongly recommended that you talk to specialists.
If you live in Victoria, The Victorian HIV Service at the Alfred Hospital and the Chronic Viral Illness Clinic at the Royal Womens Hospital can provide you with more information.
At the Chronic Viral Illness Clinic at the Royal Womens Hospital you can discuss your options with doctors who specialise in HIV and reproductive health.
This clinic specialises in helping serodiscordant couples to conceive safely.
Timing of sex to coincide with ovulation can be discussed with a healthcare provider to increase your chances of getting pregnant while reducing the risk of passing on the virus.
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Can A Wife Be Hiv Positive And The Husband Negative
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Keeping this in consideration, can I be HIV positive and my partner negative?
If one partner is positive and one is negativeIf the HIV positive person has an undetectable viral load on treatment then the risk of transmitting HIV is zero even without condoms. If the HIV negative person is taking PrEP then the risk of transmission is also zero even without condoms.
Furthermore, which blood type does not get infected by HIV? Researchers have identified that people with a blood type ‘O’ are less susceptible to infection. If you are having this blood type, it is very rare to be infected. There are people that are called carriers. They have HIV in their system however, it is not affecting them.
Correspondingly, can HIV positive get married to HIV negative?
Many couples in which one person is HIV positive and the other person isn’t want to have children. With careful planning, it is possible to have a safe and successful pregnancy while preventing HIV from passing to the HIV–negative partner .
Can you infect your partner with HIV if you are on treatment?
It means that when a person living with HIV is on regular treatment that lowers the amount of virus in their body to undetectable levels, there is zero risk of passing on HIV to their partners.
Testing Positive On Hiv Antibody Tests
Since the early days of the HIV epidemic, we have used antibody tests to test for HIV. Antibody tests are the most affordable and accessible HIV tests. They are the most common types of HIV tests at testing sites around the world because they provide rapid, on-the-spot results.
Antibody tests do not detect HIV. Instead, they detect antibodies that the immune system produces in response to HIV infection.
Want to know more about different types of HIV tests, how they work and how early they detect HIV? Check out thiseasy-to-read guide from Avert orread this Q& A by the CDC.
WHAT ARE ANTIBODIES?
Our immune systems develop antibodies in response to all kinds of pathogens. Anytime you get sick or get any kind of infection, your body builds up a defense system and creates antibodies to try and fight that specific infection off. If these antibodies are successful, some infections will go away but the antibodies never do. They will remain in your body, helping to protect you from getting the same infection in the future.
In this way, antibodies allow our bodies to remember a specific infectious agentlike a particular strain of the fluand then respond to it more quickly if exposed to it again in the future. Once we develop antibodies to a virus we may have those antibodies for life or for many years.
HIV ANTIBODIES
HIV ANTIBODIES WHEN YOURE UNDETECTABLE
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Hiv And Planning A Family
, but for a woman who is HIV-positive, or who has a male partner with HIV, planning a family requires extra consideration.
If you are in this situation, seek professional advice and find out as much as you can before you become pregnant. It may help to talk the issues through with:
- The doctor who is treating you.
- Your HIV specialist, obstetrician or family planning specialist.
- The Chronic Viral Illness Clinic at Melbournes Royal Womens Hospital . CVI clinic staff are experienced and knowledgeable about HIV in pregnancy and can provide expert advice and assisted reproductive technology options for serodiscordant couples .
- A counsellor who specialises in this area.
What Are Hiv Symptoms
A day or two after getting infected, the HIV virus is detectable in the regional lymphatic tissue. Within 6 days,it can be found in the regional lymph nodes.
After 2 weeks, it is possible to detect the virus in the nervous system and pretty much in the entire body.
Once the virus replicates itself in the body, you may start to see symptoms in about 6 weeks.
Symptoms may include:
- Herpes simplex recurrent
- Tinea infections.
These symptoms can last up to 6 weeks or less. However, these symptoms are not specific to HIV. There are other virus infections that have similar symptoms such as influenza. The only way to eliminate HIV as the cause is by going for a test.
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Reducing Hiv Transmission Risk During Pregnancy
For HIV-positive women, ways to reduce the risk of transmission include:
- Taking antiretroviral medications before conception to reduce your viral load . The lower the viral load, the lower the risk of transmission to your unborn baby.
- Start antiretroviral HIV treatment as soon as you are diagnosed with HIV .
Being on treatment and having a low, or undetectable, viral load improves your immune system and health throughout pregnancy.
HIV-positive pregnancy today, with specialised care, is the same as HIV-negative pregnancy. Pregnancy does not make HIV progress any faster.
Symptoms Of Hiv Infection
Most people experience a short flu-like illness 2 to 6 weeks after HIV infection, which lasts for a week or 2.
After these symptoms disappear, HIV may not cause any symptoms for many years, although the virus continues to damage your immune system.
This means many people with HIV do not know they’re infected.
Anyone who thinks they could have HIV should get tested.
Some people are advised to have regular tests as they’re at particularly high risk.
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Reactive Results And Follow
Because of the possibility that a positive result from a single test is, in fact, a false positive, most healthcare professionals prefer to talk about the result being ‘reactive’ rather than ‘positive’. If the result is reactive, this indicates that the test has reacted to something in your blood and needs to be investigated further.
This preliminary result must be verified with a series of confirmatory tests. If the initial test was done on a rapid, point-of-care test, you might do a follow-up test with a second rapid test that works in a slightly different way. If you provided a blood sample for analysis in a laboratory, the staff there will run several tests on the sample before telling you the result.
Who Should Get Tested For Hiv
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone 13 to 64 years of age get tested for HIV at least once as part of routine health care. As a general rule, people at higher risk for HIV should get tested each year. Sexually active gay and bisexual men may benefit from getting tested more often, such as every 3 to 6 months. If you are over 64 years of age and at risk, your health care provider may recommend HIV testing.
Factors that increase the risk of HIV include:
- Having vaginal or anal sex with someone who is HIV positive or whose HIV status you do not know
- Injecting drugs and sharing needles, syringes, or other drug equipment with others
- Exchanging sex for money or drugs
- Having a sexually transmitted disease , such as syphilis
- Having sex with anyone who has any of the HIV risk factors listed above
Talk to your health care provider about your risk for HIV and how often you should get tested for HIV.
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What Do Hiv Test Results Mean
If an HIV antibody test is negative, no antibodies were detected. A negative test can indicate that a person is not infected with HIV , or that s/he has been exposed but their immune system has not had time to produce antibodies. Antibodies to HIV may take up to six months to develop after the initial exposure.
A positive HIV antibody test means that the body has been exposed to HIV . A person with a positive HIV test will need to have further testing done to confirm this diagnosis. When a person has a positive HIV test, it does not mean that the person has AIDS or that the person will have AIDS in a certain amount of time–it only means that the person is infected with HIV.
Can Anything Affect Hiv Test Results
There have been no consequences caused by other means for HIV antibodies to be confirmed after a second test. When you prepare meals, drink during meals, smoke during times of the day, use alcohol or recreational drugs on a daily basis, put weight on, over age 50, have an infectious infection, have multiple vaccinations or use some medications before the test, then you have put yourself at risk for
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