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HOW TO KYSNever rely on a single HIV test to decide your fate.
There are many different HIV tests on the market. The one you will most commonly encounter in an anonymous test site is a 'rapid test' which uses either a drop of blood from a finger prick, or a swab of saliva. Other methods are more costly and take more time, but are more sensitive, and are often used to confirm an initial positive test result from a rapid test.
The rapid HIV test kits are designed to detect anti-HIV antibodies or proteins produced by our body cells against HIV. A person who has been exposed to HIV will usually take a few weeks and sometimes up to 6 months for the body to respond to the virus, a process called sero-conversion.
Rapid Test
ELISA
Western Blot
THE WINDOW PERIOD
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During this period (known as the window period), the HIV test would be falsely negative. The paradox is that while the test would read as negative, this person who is sero-converting is extremely infectious.
This is due to the very high levels of HIV in the blood and genital secretions at this stage before antibody production, which can lower the HIV viral load. It is believed that most new HIV infections were transmitted from people who are sero-converting or in the window period. |
DANGER
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Hence, it can be very dangerous to have raw or unprotected sex with a partner with a negative HIV test. A negative HIV test can only be deemed truly negative if the person has no possible exposure history to HIV in the previous 3 (or better, 6) months. Unfortunately, casual sex seekers often already have multiple sexual exposures prior to the sexual encounter with you and also, they can give misleading or false sexual history.
Hence, regardless of the HIV rapid test result, safer sex (with condoms) should always be employed in casual, anonymous or random sex. Protect Yourself. |
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