HIV Test Results

[kj28]

Hello Dr. I have had an HIV test and the results came back negative. It was about a week ago since I have been tested. I have been with many sexual partners and my last partner was 3 weeks before I took the test. The HIV-1 Antibody Value <1.00 Range <1.00 Results Negative, HIV 1/O/2 Abs, Qual Value Non Reactive Range Non Reactive Results Negative. Im confused about the Value and Range. Since they show some kind of Value and Range does mean that its a possibility that I need to go get retested? If so what are the possibilities of them coming back positive are negative?

[kj28]

Thank you TraderJim Im going to take a test in 2 weeks. The contact I was speaking of I didnt have unprotected sex. She gave me unprotected oral sex but Im finding out that its not to likely that I could have come in contact with the virus.

[TraderJim]

Well the hiv antibody test has a window which with current third generation hiv tests is about 12 weeks.  Meaning that 98% of the population will test positive within 12 weeks of exposure to the virus.  So testing 3 weeks after exposure doesn't give you much confidence in the result for that particular contact - perhaps a 30-40% confidence level at best.  So yes you should retest at 12 weeks from the last contact.

The way the test is done involves some "noise" in the signal they look for.  Basically it is looking for light emission under UV light from a plate coated with antigen that will glow if you have antibodies in your blood, after the blood is placed in contact with the antigen and allowed to bind to it.  Its complicated to explain.  But the measurement can pick up some noise, so there is a threshold set to separate positive from negative results.  your Value was less than 1.0, which is a negative since the Range of acceptable negative values is anything less than 1.0