Peter Shalit, M.D.Internal Medicine
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date. Hello,
As of today, how long is the window period needed to wait until one can be
sure a negative test means one is absolutaley not infected by HIV?
If your answer is 3 to 6 months, do you ave any percentages about people
seroconverting within 3 months, 4 months, 5 months and 6 months or higher?
Peter Shalit, M.D.
Internal Medicine
In my experience, greater than 99% of infected people have a positive antibody test at 3 months after infection. At 6 months, it is as close to 100% as one can get. There are always exceptions to every statement in medicine, but if I had a negative test at 6 months, I would be confident I am not infected.
I do not have 4- and 5- month statistics. I asked our local Primary HIV Infection Study about this. They were unaware of any numerical statistics that would answer your question, but they agreed with my statements in the paragraph above.
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