HIV test that shows how recent the infection ?

Question

Can anyone name the test and where can I find more lab details on it ? In the news it said 'can differentiate between recent infections ( up to 5 months ) and older ones.

Thanks

Answer 1

ELISA is for a quick test, but might not show positive results if the test was done too early when a person becomes infected.

Regardless, you will need a confirmatory test, most likely Western Blot, which will confirm infection and a viral genome load assay to determine just 'how much' HIV you actually have.

Since the time from actual infection to detection varies from individual to individual, a person might show positive in a month or 6-months.  

Answer 2

As the first poster correctly stated; the ELISA test is very useful to find HIV antibodies; but the test only becomes useful after you've been infected with the virus for at least 1 month because it takes time for your body to realize the virus is there and to try to create antibodies to attack it.

Western Blot test on the other hand focuses on finding proteins of the virus itself. The test is more expensive and more specialized than ELISA; but you can find out if you've gotten infected in at the soonest just 1 week after infection.

However, no matter the result, you must get retested in 6 months to be sure that you haven't been infected. People that get a falsely positive ELISA test must get retested to be sure that they really have HIV.