Question

Why do I need to repeat a 28-day negative HIV test at three months?

16 September 2023. Related: All topics, HIV testing.

I don’t understand how if a 28 day Duo test when negative is conclusive, why does the information on i-Base say …

“As with antibody tests, a small percentage of people may have a delayed response to HIV so people using this test four weeks after any potential exposure are routinely recommended to confirm a negative result three months later.”

I was negative at 35 days and was moving on with my life until I read this,
please help.

Answer

Answer: Simon Collins

Note: Since 2021, UK guidelines recommend that a negative result at six weeks using a 4th generation HIV Ag/Ab test does NOT need to be confirmed with a second test. Testing earlier than 6 weeks still needs a second test to confirm a negative result. The earlier answer is kept online to explain the complications of HIV teting. See https://i-base.info/qa/11844

……………

UK recommendations have changed several times on this question. In 2010 when this question was first posted, UK guidelines routinely recommended retesting so the i-Base information referenced this.

Since 2014, the guidelines change to only recommend retesting if this was linked to a high risk of HIV. (See statement below).

Updated guidelines also recommend not having to wait for 28 days before testing. Instead, it is better to test as soon as possible and then retest 4 weeks later. This change was important. It stops people worrying and might pick up early infections. Unfortunately, we still hear of clinics ask people to wait 4 weeks (or longer) before testing.

Even with tests that are incredibly accurate, health care workers have a duty to explain the best chance for a confirmed negative status. The reason for recommending the confirmatory test is two-fold:

1. A small number of people have individual responses to HIV that may not be picked up by the test at 28 days. When the tests are approved, this is based on a panel of responses from an extensive store of timed blood samples. These show that some samples pick up a positive test result after only a week and some after more than a month, but that most are positive for the p-24 antigen at around 15 days. Some people may not produce enough p-24 antigen for the test to pick this up though, so together with the antibody response, the combined test are still more than 95% accurate at four weeks.
2. The second reason relates to the possibility that someone who is not picked up, might put another person at risk of HIV. This duty of care should be explained when you take the test the test and are given the results. So although you have almost certainly not caught HIV, you should use condoms with sexual partners, until the confirmatory result.

I wish there was an accurate test at two weeks or one day, but there isn’t. The technology is more complicated than most people realise, and the concern for future transmission of HIV, however slight the possibility, is a professional health care concern.

Please don’t let this cause you stress, you are almost certainly HIV-negative, but this is the detailed reason.

BASHH/EAGA Statement on HIV window period

Note: This answer was updated in January 2018 from an original post from October 2010. The additional note was added in September 2023.