Positive Elisa HIV Test. Negative Western Bolt Test And Negative Antibody Test. Have Swollen Lymph Nodes. Could I Trust The Test Result?

Posted on Mon, 11 Nov 2013

Question: Postive Elisa Hiv test. Then Negative Western Bolt test and Negative Anitbody test at 40 days. Can I trust my two negative results? I have Herpes does that have any concern on the positive Elisa Test? I am driving my self crazy thinking I have HIV. Cant I trust any of these test? I had swollen lymph notes and stomach issues and mild abdominal pain. Please help me out. I need some guidance. I am a healthy 24 year old. I took my last rapid HIV test 40 days post possible exposure and it came back negative. I had a physical that tested for HIV using the ELISA test and it came back positive around 24 days. The same sample came back negative on the confirmation Western bolt test. I am literally loosing my mind. I cant eat, sleep and think correctly. I had read all articles online now. Can you please provide some type of guidance. Waiting three months to know if I am infected is killing me. I have ready that most people can test + within 4-6 weeks on the antibody test. I waited for days to take a follow up rapid test that came out negative on the 40th day. HELP!

Answered by Dr. Dr. Basheer Ahamed (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Go for antigen test.

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

First let me reassure you. HIV ELISA is an antibody based test and it may rarely show false positive due to antibody against other viral infections. Western blot is the confirmatory antibody test; when it is negative then the result is interpreted as negative.

If you are confused you can go for antigen based test like P24 combo test or DNA based DNA PCR test for HIV. This test are useful during window period too. These test will confirm you HIV infection.

Hope the answer helps you.
Let me know if you have any clarification.

Regards

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad