HIV Diagnosis

The most common way to be diagnosed with HIV is blood tests. These tests find the antibodies in the body that are created by the body itself for resisting the virus. Those who are exposed with the virus must get tested without delay. Though the body takes six weeks to a year to progress antibodies to the virus, still the testing is essential. Follow up test or repetition of tests depends on initial exposure of the disease. Blood test can be the best option for HIV diagnosis.

However, early testing must be performed for avoiding the further consequences. If the results of these tests are positive it means you are infected with HIV. By having results you can discuss with your doctor for the further movement. You and your doctor may develop a treatment plan for fighting with the infection. You can avoid high risk behavior or transmission of the disease. There are many healthcare providers who recommend the HIV testing as it alerts you for spreading the infection to others. You can get appropriate counseling from them.

Free testing and anonymous are also available. Your doctor will ask you about your symptoms, medical history, risk factors and after that he/she will carry out the further process i.e. physical examination.

There are some tests for HIV diagnosis that are given below

HIV and AIDS can be diagnosed with the help of the tests like ELISA Test that can be used for detecting HIV infection. If the result of ELISA test is positive then it can be followed by Western blot test for confirming that whether a person has been infected. If the result of ELISA is negative and you have doubt regarding the HIV infection, you should get tested in one to three months.

ELISA

ELISA is pretty sensitive in constant HIV infection. If you are in window period it can be possible that your result of this test will be negative though you are actually infected with HIV. The reason behind this is that antibodies are not produced or they are not detectable in window period. So you will have to go through the confirmatory tests for detecting HIV infection. You may have high level of infection during the period and it may transmit to others unknowingly.

Home tests Now days a market is flooded with lots of Home tests' kit. You may choose anyone of them but before going to choose you should follow some criteria. For example you can use Home Access Test kit that is approved by FDA (food and drug administration of USA). So you may get proper result from it.

Viral Load Test

This test counts the amount of HIV in your blood. Normally, it is utilized to supervise treatment development or identify early HIV infection. There are three technologies who measure HIV viral load in the blood. They are branched DNA (bDNA), reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and nucleic acid sequence-based amplification assay (NASBA). The basic ideology of these tests is same. DNA sequences that bind specifically to virus are used for detecting the HIV infection. It is noticeable that the results of these tests may differ between tests.

Western Blot

Western blot test is a blood test that is used to confirm a positive result of ELISA test.

HIV diagnosis can be performed by using these various tests. The furnished information would help you to know about HIV tests.