I found this on a website and i think this could help out the ppl that think a 3 month test isnt definitive and conclusive.

Many websites include the statement, "in some people the window period may last up to six months, or even longer." Here are things that I found that helped clear it up:

-The New York State Dept. of Health has a webpage called "upddate on the window period for hiv testing" that explains. HIV tests became more sensitive as the technology advanced. Now NY, which was ground zero for the epidemic, even says that "virtually all seroconversions take place within 12 weeks" and that "no further testing is necessary after three months, unless the counselor believes the patient will have repeated exposures."

-The CDC is usually the most conservative. They used to push the idea that testing had to occur at 6 months, and then 1 year. But they have a website announcing the way that OraQuick works. In that announcement, they set down 3 months as the final limit on seroconversions. OraQuick came out around 2003-2004, and it reflects the level of accuracy of all the tests being used in major places in the US now.

From what I understand, there was one study done of people who got exposed to HIV through occupational hazards. They were health care workers, etc., exposed to blood. In that study, two out of about 50 people did not have detectable antibodies until 1 year later, so a figure circulated stating that "95% of people will have seroconverted by 6 months" implying that 5% take even longer than that. But the date of that study was around 1997, and it was dealing with data from even earlier, before they had the antibody tests as sensitive as the ones they use now.

The tests developed since about 2002 or so are much more advanced, so late seroconversions aren't really an issue anymore, after the 12-13 week standard window. On the San Francisco City Health website, the line is that "it is exceedingly rare for people to take more than 3 months, as in, only a few documented cases ever" and even those documented cases were from over 10 years ago.

I hope that helped! You can find all this by googling and scrolling through everything you find on the term "testing window for hiv." Ignore the cheesy websites or community health webpages, many of which haven't been updated for 5 or more years.

Dr. Bob any comments?

Hello,

My comments? BRAVO! Thanks for doing the research to further back up what I've been preaching for years.

Stay well.

Dr. Bob