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Underground > Laboratory >

Strange test results

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

12:51 / 17.04.02

Ok all you sciency people, i wanted to get some opinions here since the docs involved just shrug
had a bit of a scare 4-6 monthes back
My gf/fiance got a full barrage of blood tests and got "odd" results on her HIV tests--mainly partial positive
Ok, we were fairly freaked, i had a test recently that was negative, but that eally doesnt mean anything considering the whole 6 month wait time
Anyway, 3 monthes later she got tested again, still strange results, partial positive, but the number of antibodies was signifigantly lower that the first test
So, a week or 2 ago she got tested again, and there were no traces od the antibodies they test for--which is good

My question is, What would caus this to happen?
Are the anti-bodies they test for made by any other conditions?
What would cause them to die off?

thanks

15:17 / 17.04.02

Well HIV isn't the only retrovirus on the block, and plenty of other things can cause false positives - chances are, she got exposed to something else, like hepatitis.
There's some more info here.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

16:20 / 17.04.02

our hep tests were neg as well, but she was taking birth control at the time, as well as some other medication but i didnt think that would cause a false positive.

22:15 / 17.04.02

I'm not sure from your description which of the HIV tests your girlfriend had.

-one tests for presence of HIV proteins, using antibodies
-one tests for presence of anti-HIV antibodies
-one tests for presence of HIV rRNA

If it's the first one, then in all likelihood, she had some kind of pathogen with a moderate similarity to HIV, which got picked up weakly as a false positive. If it's the second one, she probably had exactly the same thing, but further in the past, so that her immune system twigged to the antigen in the test.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

11:10 / 18.04.02

i read through one of the links that grant had posted, and one mentioned things that can cause false positives, including respitory problems, and she had the flu about 2 weeks before the testing, so thats likely the cause
thanks all