{"id":6119,"date":"2021-06-01T12:00:53","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T12:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/?page_id=6119"},"modified":"2021-06-17T06:23:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T06:23:00","slug":"why-do-some-uk-clinics-ask-people-to-wait-3-months","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/testing\/why-do-some-uk-clinics-ask-people-to-wait-3-months","title":{"rendered":"Why do some UK clinics ask people to wait 3 months before an HIV test?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>No UK clinic should ask you to wait for three months before testing.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>UK guidelines recommend waiting six weeks after an exposure before having a 4th generation HIV test.\u00a0This will detect 99% of infections. If you test negative after six weeks you don&#8217;t need to confirm the result with a second test.<\/p>\n<p>If you test after four weeks, 95% of infection will be detected. When the UK recommended a four week window, this needed a second test to confirm the results after three months.<\/p>\n<p>For 3rd generation tests, the window period is 8.5 weeks (60 days).<\/p>\n<p>Point-of-care (POC) tests* have an even longer window period. This involves waiting three months (90 days) to reduce the risk of a false-negative result.<\/p>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 19\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p><em>* POC tests include self-testing, self-sampling and rapid tests. For example, Determine HIV-1\/2 Ab (3rd generation), INSTI HIV-1\/2 Test\u00a0and the OraQuick Rapid HIV-1\/2 antibody test.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>If your clinic doesn\u2019t use 4th generation tests ask why not, and where you can get this test.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Please call i-Base if you want us to help.<\/p>\n<p>Ref: British Association on Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) Adult HIV testing guidelines, March 2010.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bhiva.org\/HIV-testing-guidelines\">https:\/\/www.bhiva.org\/HIV-testing-guidelines<\/a> (web page)<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bhiva.org\/file\/5f68c0dd7aefb\/HIV-testing-guidelines-2020.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.bhiva.org\/file\/5f68c0dd7aefb\/HIV-testing-guidelines-2020.pdf<\/a> (PDF)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No UK clinic should ask you to wait for three months before testing. UK guidelines recommend waiting six weeks after an exposure before having a 4th generation HIV test.\u00a0This will detect 99% of infections. If you test negative after six &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":5467,"menu_order":33,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-guides.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6119","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6119\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}