HIV is a very serious disease where the immune system gradually gently weakens over time so that the infected person becomes vulnerable to diseases that are otherwise not dangerous to healthy persons. It is very important that infection is detected on time so as to prevent serious complications of long-term HIV, but for many, infection with the virus will not have any symptoms. It is therefore important that you take a test if you conduct risk activities in a group where HIV occurs frequently or if you suspect you may have been infected.
Antibodies form the basis for all diagnosis of HIV
The body will form antibodies to all microorganisms that have a potential for disease, although the infectious agent is usually relatively harmless. These molecules form the basis for the diagnosis and testing of very many infectious diseases, and it will be possible to detect them in the blood 3 to 4 weeks after being infected with HIV. In this connection, a positive result will mean detectable amounts of HIV antibody in blood, thus being an expression of infection, while a negative result will be good news for the test person. However, it takes some time before the levels of blood antibodies are high enough to prove them with 100 percent safety, and you risk a so-called “false negative test result” if you test early. An important rule of thumb is that the tests, regardless of whether they are done at a hospital or doctor’s office, will be 80 percent accurate after three weeks and 100 percent accurate after three months. The period between time of infection and to three months has passed, called the “window”, and in this period you always risk a false negative result. It is also during this period that it is infectious, so that the harmful potential is purely socially the greatest in this time. During this time, you must test yourself regularly with a quick test for HIV, as well as practice safe sex with condoms.
How is an HIV test performed?
The procedures for an HIV test depend on whether you take the test at home or at the hospital, but in principle it always takes the examiner’s blood. This can be drained with a blood test from the arm (hospital), or through a small sting in the finger like in an HIV home test. In the hospital, the sample material will be sent to the laboratory for further analyzes in the form of ELISA and Western Blot. ELISA works by detecting antibodies to HIV in the blood, like a rapid test for HIV, but the difference is that it can say something about how aggressive the infection is. Western blot detects proteins and structural components of HIV in the blood, but it is more expensive and takes longer to perform so that it is not suitable for regular people who want to test themselves regularly. It is instead quite suitable for infants born of mothers with HIV, as newborns receive mother’s antibodies from breast milk through breastfeeding. This means that HIV infants will always have a positive result of an HIV test if you do a fastest or ELISA, but Western Blot that detects viral proteins will be very suitable for this purpose.