What should I believe about my test results?!

[catey77]

I have a question about the HIV rapid tests. Doctor HHH states that they are not as accurate as the Elisa tests yet every government site and the CDC say that they are. Also Dr. Bob (r.i.p.<3) wrote on The Body forum that testing with one single rapid fingerprick test is the same as getting 8 different blood tests. I believe his exact analogy was "You can kill a mosquito with a fly swatter or a hammer. Either way the mosquito is squished dead." Is he right or is Dr. HHH right? I am panicking because I tested negative via Unigold fingerprick  at least 9 months after possible exposure and I am done with sex! I will never have sex again if I find out I am negative, I don't even care! Anything to avoid this torture I've endured for so long. Anyway, I sooo want to believe my  negative result, but with contradicting information like this circulating the internet it's hard to. There's always that doubt in my mind. I've had people tell me I need another test and other people tell me I need psychiatric help- which I probably do after all this. And also, I feel like between this and reading about people who can't produce detectable antibodies, rare strains, hiv-2, technical errors...now I know why people get tested 100 times. Bc it seems like no matter what you do, you can never be 100% sure and frankly it's ruining even those people's lives who test negative.

[staysafe]

Would an HIV antibody test detect antibodies of an HIV infection if it is a rare strain? if not what test would? a PCR?

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

Take the positives and stop worrying. You have tested negative, and thats what is important. To confirm the presence of HIV infection, the most specific test would be testing for its antibodies with an ELISA test which is a screening test which looks for antibodies in the blood. The antibodies are usually produced within 1-3 months of the infection. If this test is positive as a lot of false positivity exists with this test another more specific test to detect the antibodies is the Western blot test. But as this test is negative, no further testing is needed.

To conclude if you are not manifesting any symptoms of HIV like repeated infections and as you tested negative with Elisa test, it's unlikely that you may be harboring the infection.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.