First of all, good job...I really admire your job and your dedication for HIV patients. Recently, I asked about some tests during a blood donation. Dr. Sullivan answered but I still have some doubts related to these. My doctor repeated the Elisa and western blot, and sent also the RNA viral count just to make sure I was not infected. The last two were negative, no infection. But the Elisa test indicated "reactive". I was not taking any medication or going through any illness (not that I know). My question is: Is there any other condition that could be reflecting the result as positive even though I'm not? If there is, which one could be affecting my results?

False positive Elisa screening tests can be due to a number of things such as cross reactive antibodies to human antigens due to a previous preganancy or blood transfusion, cross reactive antibodies to bacteria/yeast, or autoimmune diseases such as Lupus. This is why more specific confirmatory tests are used to confirm a diagnosis of HIV infection. The fact that the Western blot and HIV PCR testing were negative is very reassuring that you are not HIV infected.

BJ