After the HIV virus enters the body, our immune system develops Anti-HIV antibodies to fight this virus. Our body cannot do this right away, so after the virus enters the body, it takes a certain period of time for it to form Anti-HIV antibodies. As it can be understood from here, a certain period of time must have passed for the Anti-HIV test to be positive. It takes 3 months to get a definite result by looking at the antibodies, so checking the Anti-HIV test right after a suspicious sexual intercourse is meaningless.
If the HIV test is to be performed in cases such as a suspected sexual intercourse or blood transfusion, the en p24 test should be done first. P24 is a unique protein found in the HIV virus itself. Therefore, a positive test (if the test has been studied properly) indicates that the person has acquired the HIV virus. The P24 test becomes positive on an average of 10 to 21 days after infection and remains in the blood until 90 days.
Should I Get HIV p24 Antigen Test?
HIV p24 antigen testing is more reliable for early diagnosis. Detection of HIV antigen is the method used for early diagnosis, but it is necessary to detect the presence of antibodies to confirm the diagnosis.
For this reason, there are 4th generation HIV tests that measure both HIV p24 antigen and HIV 1/2 antibodies simultaneously. World Health Organization and T.C. The Ministry of Health recommends the use of 4th generation test methods that screen for both p24 antigen and HIV-specific antibodies after suspected contact.
Since the 4th generation tests also screen for HIV-specific antibodies, its reliability is quite high. These tests are used to detect HIV infection in early diagnosis, starting from the suspected relationship. 4th generation tests that screen P24 antigen and HIV antibodies give much more reliable results in early diagnosis.
It is important to consider the window period after acute HIV infection when infected persons are still antibody negative, especially in blood donors (blood donors). The newly developed fourth-generation testers detect antibodies to HIV-1 and HIV-2, including subtype O, as well as to the p24 antigen of HIV-1. To evaluate this assay for daily routine studies, it was compared with different third-generation assays using sera from uninfected patients and patients with known HIV infection. The most interesting sera are from newly infected patients during seroconversion. When we encounter such a patient with acute HIV infection, we store the serum in deep freezers at -20 degrees C. So we created our own seroconversion panel and used it in our lab to evaluate new assays. The new test was shown to be able to detect all chronically infected individuals and four out of six patients during seroconversion, although conventional assays for HIV antibodies in two of these patients were still negative. The rate of non-specific reactivity was slightly higher compared to the third generation assays.
For these reasons, it is important to perform HIV PCR RNA testing against the 8-10-day risk of retrospective HIV transmission in patients who will donate blood. The HIV virus, which is in the incubation period, can become active after blood transfusion and become HIV positive, and it is a very sensitive process.
Hiv P24 antigen has the ability to capture the earliest positive value between 16-21 days, and reaches the highest predictive value when 28-30 days are made.
Ways to access your HIV p24 Antigen Test results:
- If you wish, an SMS will be sent to your mobile phone as soon as your HIV p24 Antigen Test result is available.
- If you wish, you can access your HIV p24 Antigen test result online with your personal password.
- If you wish, your HIV p24 Antigen test result will be sent to the e-mail address you specified during registration.
- If you wish, you can get your HIV p24 Antigen test results with a wet signature by coming to our branches.