Dear shannon, I had an unprotected sex with a guy whose status is unknown.after 5 months of exposure i had an ELisa test.which says the following Hiv 1/2 antibodies :-(negative)0.056 s/co cut off value :- 0.24 s/co. please explain my status according to this values mentioned in the report.Do i need to retest in the further period? and what exactly is the cut off value?does it change from person to person?please do reply with your valuable feedback. Regards

Hi The guidelines for HIV testing are to be initially tested at 3 weeks then again at 90 days, if both of these tests are negative then so are you, as long as there were no other types of exposure during that 3 month period, if so then the timing starts over again. When you test comes back negative or non reactive than so are you. When running test they are looking for specific values and every lab is different but consistent in the results. Your test is showing that you are negative and at 5 months if there have been no other exposures during this time that you are HIV free from the experience you had.

Be well and bring those condoms! Shannon