Can you have symptoms of HIV and still test negative?

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Can you have symptoms of HIV and still test negative?

While many HIV tests are extremely accurate, they do not achieve 100\% accuracy. A false negative is a test result that says a person does not have HIV when, in fact, they do. False negative results most often occur when people test in the first few weeks after infection, during the ‘window period’ of a test.

Is HIV test accurate after 1 year?

HIV tests are between 99\% and 100\% reliable. Newer, so-called combination or fourth generation tests and other lab-based tests are close to 100\% accurate. Rapid or at-home tests are right around 99\% of the time if you’ve been infected for a while. But if you were recently exposed, they may not be as trustworthy.

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Can HIV take longer than 6 months to develop antibodies?

After exposure and infection with HIV, most people will develop detectable antibodies to the virus within 3 months. However, it can take as long as 6 months for this process (called seroconversion) to occur in a small percentage of people. It is very rare for this process to take longer than six months.

Does a negative HIV test result mean I don’t have HIV?

A negative result doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t have HIV. This is due to the window period. If you test again after the window period, have no possible HIV exposure during the window period, and the result comes back negative, you do not have HIV.

How accurate is an HIV test after 2 months?

Once the window period has elapsed (two months after possible exposure to HIV), if you test twice, using a different test device on each occasion, and both tests give a negative result, you can be confident that the result is accurate. For more information about HIV test accuracy, read our pages on sensitivity and specificity and on window periods.

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How do you confirm a positive HIV test result?

If you used a self-testing kit at home, a positive HIV test result must always be confirmed by additional HIV testing performed in a health care setting. If your blood was tested in a lab, the lab will conduct a follow-up test on the same sample.

What is an anonymous HIV test?

Anonymous testing means that nothing ties your test results to you. When you take an anonymous HIV test, you get a unique identifier that allows you to get your test results. These tests are not available at every place that provides HIV testing.