Question
If I donated blood does this mean I am HIV negative?
10 August 2011. Related: All topics, HIV testing.
I donated blood at 2 months 3 weeks after the last time i had unprotected sex with my girlfriend. The blood was accepted.
If i was HIV positive they would have rejected my blood right? Do i need another HIV test?
Its been 4.5 years after the incident. The girl is happily married and i have not symptoms.
Answer
Blood donation tells you nothing about your HIV status unless they gave you an HIV tests at  the same time. If you want to know your HIV status you need to take an HIV test.
Although nearly all countries now have very effective screening for blood donations the way that this is done will vary.
If you and your current girlfriend have both tested negative, then there is no further risk from anything that happened four years ago.
It is not clear whether you have ever had an HIV test, so this is something you may want to do.
This page includes information on transmission and testing.
Hi Janeit,
There isn’t any research that has been done that pertains to this. And given the ethical dilemmas, its unlikely that any will. This is because even if the risk of transmission is close to zero when someone is undetectable, there is still a slight risk.
These days people that are faithful in taking ARTs and also responding well to the treatment, their viral load goes down from what I hear and sometimes cannot be traced in their blood. Suppose such a person donates blood can that blood transmit HIV/AIDS to the blood receiver knowing it is viral 0%?
thank u for answering me
Hi ayodele,
Please see question one here:
http://i-base.info/qa/what-are-the-most-asked-questions
I had unprotected sex with someone who I paid to have sex with in January I went to donate blood on February and I was told to come back in another 3 month to donate again and I went to donate on June and I was told noting wrong with my blood but am still confusing if anything can still be wrong with the blood. pls I will grateful if I can receive advice from u.
An important caution is that blood donation programmes differ between countries.
The information we provide on this site is read by people in many different settings.
It is not good to use blood donation as a way to know your own HIV status.
It is always recommended to have a specific test to know you HIV status.
I think in the first place,before you are allowed to donate blood,they should have taken your blood sample for series of blood tests including HIV.So i don’t think there’s need for worries.
HIV testing services can talk about your individual circumstances in terms of HIV risk and the window period for test accuracy. As these are the questions you are asking, it would be better to go through this will these healthcare specialists.
Some people donate blood without realising they have been recently infected and the blood bank test will not detect this.
The blood bank had forms asking for consent to perform HIV tests. Also they said they would inform me if the blood tested positive. Would this not be sufficient?