HealthTimes Contributor
So most of you might be wondering probably ten year after you had a sexual encounter with someone you didn’t trust, whether you contracted the virus or not.
Many a times, you develop something, a wart or boil in some funny area of your body and your memory quickly lingers back to that very moment you might have gone beyond limits.
Well before we go any further, the best way to know whether you are HIV positive or not is by getting an HIV test and thank God in Zimbabwe, you can now get tested at any health centre and institutions like New Start Centre.
The big question we are going to look at today is whether HIV can hide in the blood to the extent that even an HIV test can miss its presence in the blood stream.
What you need to know is that one can as long as 10 years with the virus in the system but without even showing signs of infection.
However, as for HIV detection through conducting an HIV test, Current international guidelines state that any HIV test taken at 3 months/12 weeks/84 days is definite and conclusive.
Six months was the old guideline for testing, Better tests have since been developed that are able to detect HIV infection a lot faster than the old tests. An HIV test taken one year after an exposure is accurate and conclusive. HIV does not hide in the blood.
A test taken within the window period will give you an excellent indication of your HIV status. Any test taken at 3 months after an exposure and beyond 3 months after an exposure will accurately detect HIV if it is present in the blood plasma.
Most people develop detectable antibodies 21-25 days after infection. There is a possibility that individuals who are taking Hepatitis C medication, are undergoing intensive chemotherapy or have an immunodeficiency disorder (which is usually diagnosed when you are a child–so if you had this you would know) may have delayed antibody production.
Health practitioners may recommend that these individuals get tested for HIV 6 months after an exposure for definite results. For everyone else, 3 months is the guideline.
