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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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How Can One Be HIV Positive Without Having Exchanged Blood Or Being Involved In A Sexual Activity?

Hello Doctor, recently during blood donation a lab assistant told me that he cann't take my blood cause he might have found something in it. so he asked for additional blood sample and ran a hiv screen test; the result came as positive(condition: borderline; test sample rate: 1.17; cutoff: 1.00)

But the irony is that, i'm still virgin and i have never taken blood from someone. so how could this happen?? and as the test came as borderline (only 1.17) is it conclusive that i am infected with hiv?
Sat, 7 Dec 2013
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HIV AIDS Specialist 's  Response
Hi,
Welcome to HCM.

It is quite unlikely to have HIV without an obvious sexual activity or a blood transfusion. If it is borderline then the test has to be repeated after 2 weeks to confirm the positive result. There lies a very rare possibility of a false positive HIV rapid test in some auto-immune disease, vaccinations, substance abuse and recent high fevers etc. Whether the test is a real positive one or not can be confirmed by a western blot test or with a DNA PCR test.

You had not mentioned your age. Rare possibilities of Mother to child transmission if your mother is positive or a childhood blood transmission or a needle sharing have to be excluded before suspecting the false positive results.
DR S.Murugan
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How Can One Be HIV Positive Without Having Exchanged Blood Or Being Involved In A Sexual Activity?

Hi, Welcome to HCM. It is quite unlikely to have HIV without an obvious sexual activity or a blood transfusion. If it is borderline then the test has to be repeated after 2 weeks to confirm the positive result. There lies a very rare possibility of a false positive HIV rapid test in some auto-immune disease, vaccinations, substance abuse and recent high fevers etc. Whether the test is a real positive one or not can be confirmed by a western blot test or with a DNA PCR test. You had not mentioned your age. Rare possibilities of Mother to child transmission if your mother is positive or a childhood blood transmission or a needle sharing have to be excluded before suspecting the false positive results. DR S.Murugan