What does a positive HIV test mean?

Many days after sex, I often worry about being infected with AIDS, so it is particularly important to do an AIDS test. Do you know how to read the results of an AIDS test?

What does a positive test result mean?

1. The person being tested has been infected with HIV;

2. The subject currently has HIV in his body and is HIV-infected or AIDS patient;

3. The person being tested may transmit the virus to others.

What does a negative test result mean?

It takes a while for HIV antibodies to be detected after the human body is infected with HIV. This period of time is called the window period, which is generally 2 weeks to 3 months. If HIV antibodies are still not detected after the window period, it means that the person is not infected.

Therefore, an initial test should be done 2-4 weeks after the high-risk experience. If the result is negative after 4 weeks, the infection rate can be ruled out to about 98%. If the result is negative after 8 weeks, the infection rate can be ruled out to 99.99%. Only about one in ten thousand people has a window period of 8 weeks to 3 months. In order to 100% rule out the possibility of infection, it is best to have a final re-examination after 3 months, and a negative result can completely rule it out.

Not sure if it's positive or negative

Refers to the result of the HIV antibody test confirmation test, which is neither negative nor positive, but somewhere in between. Those with uncertain results are generally recommended to retest after 3 months.

Waiting for re-examination to see if it is infected or not

(1) If the test result is positive, another tube of blood will be drawn from the patient to confirm the result again to prevent sample errors or other reasons. After confirmation, the sample will be sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further confirmation. The final result will be fed back to the Department of Prevention and Health of our hospital, and the relevant doctor will inform the patient. Before the result is confirmed, whether the patient needs to be transferred to the infectious disease department will be decided by the clinical physician, the Department of Prevention and Health, and the infectious disease department.

(2) As long as the laboratory report is "pending review", the patient must take safety precautions as an HIV-positive patient before the confirmation result is reported.

(3) Patients “pending review” need clinical assistance to provide the patient’s ID card and contact number to the laboratory department and report the epidemic registration.