Last year i had a false positive HIV test result. My elisa was positive and western blot was negative. My doc told me she didn't think I had HIV but wanted to do a viral load test to be sure. That was negative and she told me' no need to retest. It's been a year since then and I went to a new dr yesterday and she told me' I should because viral load tests arnt accurate even though my Obgyn and primary dr both told me' I am fine. Let me' state when I had my elisa test and viral load that I hadn't had unprotected sex for atleast 6 or 7 months, and no sexual contact at all for at least 2 or 3 months before all my testing. I also wanted to point out that they said my herpes test looked positive and then a few days later told me' the levels were too low to considered to have a herpes outbreak. And that that could be the reason for my false positive HIV test. I was fine until my new dr made me' worry yesterday. Should I retest for HIV?

Hi.

A "false positive HIV test" is by definition a negative HIV test. A positive ELISA with negative Western Blot outside the window period is considered to be a negative HIV-screening test. The undetectable quantitative HIV RNA PCR plasma viral load merely confirmed what we already knew: You were HIV negative. HIV is not your problem. No way. No how. No additional HIV testing is warranted.

Dr. Bob