Undergone ELISA Test. Worried For Infected With HIV

Posted on Tue, 21 May 2013

Question: Dear sir, today I have conducted ELISA test, Cut off OD Value is 0.245, but my value after the test is OD 0.029.
whether I am infected with HIV?
I am worried a lot.
kindly answer me sir?

Answered by Dr. Pankaj Malhan (51 minutes later)

Hi

Thanks for asking.

Elisa is the preliminary investigation for the diagnosis of Human immunodeficiency Virus Infection.It detects the antibodies against the virus so it takes some time to show the positive result.

In your case your value has come out to be 0.029 which is way below the cut off for the positive test ,i.e 0.245.That is why your test is negative at this time.

Just remember one thing though, it takes time for this test to be positive,usually 3 months for the antibody level to reach the level which can be measured by ELISA.This is called window period.In this the person may be infective , but ELISA won't pick it up.

Either get this test done again in 3 months to be absolutely sure,or you can go for HIV PCR testing which is positive after 28 days of exposure in 95% of cases.

Thanks.

I am available for follow up queries.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar