Is ELISA Antibody Test Conclusive At 85 Days Post Exposure?

Posted on Mon, 30 Mar 2015

Question: Helo doc i had an unprotected encounter and my antibody and western blot at 60 th and 77 th day are negative and only antibody at 85 and 91 day are negative .... Doc did i need to undergo test at 6 month ..... Also there is lot of information about people seroconverting aftre 1 year plsss help

Answered by Dr. Vivek Chail (50 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
It is recommended to do 180 days test in your case

Detailed Answer:
Hi XXXX,
Thanks for writing in.

I have read through your query in detail.
There are many methods of testing for HIV infection. ELISA antibody test and western blot are among them.

Till recently, it was told that doing a test on 90 and 180 days with negative results almost confirms absence of infection. So it was a rule that 180 day test is a must for those who are negative by ELISA or western blot when done at 90 days.

Since you got test done by older method therefore getting tested at 180 days was recommended.

Presently there is a new test called fourth generation rapid test which gives 99 percent accuracy when tested 15 days after sexual exposure. Under this if the test is done at one month then it is almost confirmatory.

There has been only a single case about which I have read where the patient had seroconversion after a year.

Please do not worry, most likely you will test negative if you take the test again.

Hope this answers your question. Please feel free to correct any oversight in my interpretation of your problems and discuss them in detail as per your requirements.

Hope your query is answered.
Do write back if you have any doubts.

Regards,
Dr.Vivek

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar