Test Results

For most HIV tests, a small amount of blood will be drawn from your arm and tested. In some cases, urine or saliva is used.

• Most HIV tests detect antibodies to HIV in the blood, urine, or saliva. A person who is not infected with HIV will not have HIV antibodies. HIV antibodies are only present when the HIV has invaded the body. As the body’s immune system fights the HIV virus, it creates antibodies to that virus to fight off the infection.



• The time it takes to get your test results varies from 30 minutes to a few weeks. Usually, publicly funded, free testing sites take longer to return test results. Private, for-profit, testing sites will return results faster. Costs at private HIV testing sites vary between $30 and $200 per test.



• It takes time for the body to develop HIV antibodies after infection. The time it takes for a person who has been infected with HIV to test positive for HIV antibodies is called a window period. This window period does not refer to the time it takes for symptoms of AIDS to begin. Symptoms may not develop for years after the exposure.
  
  
  • Almost all people infected with HIV will develop HIV antibodies in their bloodstream within 3 months of their infection.
  
  
  
  • In some people, it can take as long as 6 months after infection to develop antibodies.
  
  
  
  • If you engaged in behavior that can transmit the virus during the 6 months prior to HIV testing, you may have a false-negative test. In other words, your test may be reported to you as negative, but you may actually be infected because your body may not yet have produced enough antibodies to be detected by the test. To be sure, you must be retested at least 6 months after you last engaged in behavior that can transmit HIV.