someone asked a question on which bands are positive you stated that they are p24,gp160,and gp120 what do these positive bands mean?p24,gp41,gp121.ans then you said at sometime al 8 bands will be positive do all 8 have to be reactive or only a few i dont understand this a friend of mine the bands that showed up were the ones i stated above what does that mean?

A standard western blot test, will test for up to 8 different antibodies against HIV that might be found in blood. The numbers like p24 refer to the specific antibodies that might be found. You only need 2-3 antibodies to be present out of the 8 to call a test positive. Usually after acute infection, the first "band" or antibody to be positive is p24. This is followed within days to a week by gp120 and 160. As seroconversion develops the other 5 antibodies will develop (gp41, p66, p55, etc). Thus several weeks after infection, all the bands or antibodies on a western blot will be positive. The bands you listed in your question, would tend to indicate that HIV infection was present. If those were the only ones present on the western blot, it indicates to me that it is early infection. MH