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Testing result accuracy
Hi All,
I had a exposure.after 9.5 weeks I have done a rapid test and it came out negative. Can I be confident ?
I am following Dr.Hook as he explains as below:-
"As far as the varying recomendations, the difference in 98%, 99%, "most" and "all" are semantic. We get asked the same questions repeatedly, sometimes on the same day. Sometimes the words come out a little differently. Don't get hung up by it.
Finally, with regard to testing time, I will paste in a comment I made to another client explaing the situation - "We get many questions about the meaning of HIV test results at different time points. This is now confused by the availability of a variety of different types of tests. The traditional and most widely used tests for HIV are tests for antibodies to HIV which are available both as so-called "rapid" or point of care tests which can be done in the clinic and laboratory based antibody tests. For all practical purposes both of these types of test perform comparably and provide accurate information on the presence or absence of HIV infection in virtually everyone at 8 weeks following exposure. The recommendations for testing at 3 and even 6 months are the result of two factors- data from older tests no longer used (you really do not need to worry about which generation of tests you were tested with, at this time virtually all tests are far more sensitive that they were even 2-3 years ago when the 3 month recommendation was made) and secondly, the fact that some, mostly governmental agencies which have to provide recommendations for virtually everyone without the sort of interactions such as those you get with your doctor or on personalized sites such as this one, feel the cannot "afford" to be wrong and therefore make recommendations and guidelines which leave most people unnecessarily nervous for 4-6 weeks longer than the 6-8 weeks it takes virtually everyone to develop HIV antibodies."
Can I move on now.?
I had a exposure.after 9.5 weeks I have done a rapid test and it came out negative. Can I be confident ?
I am following Dr.Hook as he explains as below:-
"As far as the varying recomendations, the difference in 98%, 99%, "most" and "all" are semantic. We get asked the same questions repeatedly, sometimes on the same day. Sometimes the words come out a little differently. Don't get hung up by it.
Finally, with regard to testing time, I will paste in a comment I made to another client explaing the situation - "We get many questions about the meaning of HIV test results at different time points. This is now confused by the availability of a variety of different types of tests. The traditional and most widely used tests for HIV are tests for antibodies to HIV which are available both as so-called "rapid" or point of care tests which can be done in the clinic and laboratory based antibody tests. For all practical purposes both of these types of test perform comparably and provide accurate information on the presence or absence of HIV infection in virtually everyone at 8 weeks following exposure. The recommendations for testing at 3 and even 6 months are the result of two factors- data from older tests no longer used (you really do not need to worry about which generation of tests you were tested with, at this time virtually all tests are far more sensitive that they were even 2-3 years ago when the 3 month recommendation was made) and secondly, the fact that some, mostly governmental agencies which have to provide recommendations for virtually everyone without the sort of interactions such as those you get with your doctor or on personalized sites such as this one, feel the cannot "afford" to be wrong and therefore make recommendations and guidelines which leave most people unnecessarily nervous for 4-6 weeks longer than the 6-8 weeks it takes virtually everyone to develop HIV antibodies."
Can I move on now.?
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