HIV AIDS testing
Individuals who are suspected of having Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can undergo aids testing in almost all health care clinics. The available tests can easily determine whether or not you have been exposed to this deadly virus. Regardless of the reason you undergo HIV testing, this event will make you slightly nervous and apprehensive.
An HIV aids test is required if you want to slow spread of the infection. During the early phase of the infection, most people have no symptoms or signs of infection. Moreover, these individuals may continue to have unprotected sex or shared needles and pass the infection to others.
Once HIV aids tests are positive, there are decent drug treatments to help progression of the disease and limit the symptoms. Early treatment of HIV has been shown to delay progression to AIDS.
Because HIV is a deadly virus, physicians highly encourage voluntary testing as part of routine medical care in certain cases if:
You are pregnant and have HIV; you can pass the infection to the fetus
You have had unprotected vaginal, anal or oral sex with multiple partners or with anonymous partners
You are a male and participate in male to male anal sex
You use intravenous drugs or share needles
You have been previously diagnosed with other sexually transmitted disease like syphilis or herpes
There are several tests available to detect HIV. In the majority of cases, your physician will obtain blood or cell samples taken from the insides of your cheek with a cotton swab and check for the presence of antibodies. The consumer must understand one fact: these HIV tests are not very accurate soon after one acquires HIV. The reason: the body takes time to make antibodies against the virus and this may take anywhere from 4-10 weeks. So if there are no antibodies, the test will show up as negative but you may still have the virus in your body. Once a positive test has come back, the test is always repeated to confirm the results with more sensitive tests. Individuals are only told that they are HIV positive when all the tests are positive.
The home access HIV 1 test is accurate and all positive results are automatically retested to confirm the results. There are other very sensitive tests (PCR and p23 antigen) that can identify antibodies much earlier but these tests are quite expensive and not always available in all centers.
If you have a negative result it may mean that you are not infected or it may be too soon to tell. If you have just recently been exposed to HIV, you could be negative and need to undergo repeat testing within 3 months. Mind you, it is your responsibility to tell your partners if you are infected with HIV so that they can undergo AIDS testing.