meds and testing

[einathens]

somebody asked me this question yesterday and i had no idea what the answer is.

if you're poz, on meds, and undetectable and you take an hiv test, does it show you as poz or neg?

[pighole2use]

Once you're POZ, you're always POZ unless a cure is found - therefore if for some reason or another another HIV need to be taken, YES it will still detect that you're POZ no matter if you're on meds and undetectable.

[rawTOP]

As I understand it there are two types of tests.

The standard looks for antibodies to HIV. So if you're undetectable you still have antibodies and will show up as poz. The only unexpected thing with those tests is that people who have been in HIV vaccine trials may test positive even when they're neg because their bodies have created antibodies in reaction to the vaccine.

The other test is an RNA test. If I understand that test correctly it's actually looking for the virus, not the antibodies. In that case someone who is undetectable might test neg. Not 100% sure about that though.

[wood]

As I understand it there are two types of tests.

The standard looks for antibodies to HIV. So if you're undetectable you still have antibodies and will show up as poz. The only unexpected thing with those tests is that people who have been in HIV vaccine trials may test positive even when they're neg because their bodies have created antibodies in reaction to the vaccine.

The other test is an RNA test. If I understand that test correctly it's actually looking for the virus, not the antibodies. In that case someone who is undetectable might test neg. Not 100% sure about that though.

This is correct with a couple notes,

ELISA and western blot are both antibody tests for HIV, the main failure of this method is that the body takes time to show antibodies thus why there is a window period.

NAT or nucleic acid testing is very similar to viral load testing in people who are HIV poz. This test shortens the window period to roughly two-three weeks. This test is also what blood banks use now, and yes you are correct that someone who is very well controlled may test neg. NAT testing is becoming a lot more common because despite being more expensive, it dramatically shortens the window period. The clinic I go to does antibody testing while you are there, then send the samples out for NAT testing.

One thing that has become interesting is that people who are on long term ARV's and very responsive to them have been shown to sometimes albeit rarely test neg on both tests because of how antibodies slowly dissapear overtime in response to some illnesses. Now this is on the order of over 10 years, but it has happened.