Question
Can HIV tests be affected by prescription or non-prescription drugs, herbal remedies or supplements or alcohol?
13 December 2007. Related: All topics, HIV transmission, Recreational drugs, Supplements and herbs.
Answer
None of these things you would cause an HIV test to give an inaccurate result because the test looks for antibodies in your immune system.
Accept the good news, that like most people who actually test for HIV, you are lucky enough to have had an HIV-negative test result.
If you have any physical symptoms that prompts these worries, then you should see a doctor.
Hi Tim, where have you read that multivitamins can affect the accuracy of HIV tests?
Multivitamins are known to have some risk of interacting with HIV treatment, but there is no evidence to suggest that they impact HIV test results. Your results are conclusive.
More information about HIV testing and transmission can be found here: https://i-base.info/qa/factsheets/hiv-transmission-and-testing
I would like to ask, i have taken multivitamins daily and recently I have read that biotin can affect the accuracy of HIV tests. The multivitamin tablets I have consumed for months contains 50ug of Biotin. The HIV tests I took were An/ab lab test based on ECLIA principles and one Alere Determine rapid test. Can the multivitamin I took daily affect the non reactive results I had?
Hi Zack, prednisolone cannot affect the result of an HIV test.
What about short dosage of 10mg of Prednisolone per day for a week? Can it affect the HIV antibody test?
Dear Marley, nothing will slow production of HIV antibodies.
Not medicines, drugs, herbs. supplements, foods, alcohol, vaccines, exercise etc etc etc…
Could herbal remedies however slow the production of antibodies and hence making them undetectable in a test?