HIV diagnosis: Tests for HIV infection

Doctors at National Aids Research Institute are close to developing a test that will help them to diagnose HIV infection without examining blood. Read on to know about tests you need to undergo for HIV virus diagnosis.

Editorial Team | Published: February 19, 2019 2:55 pm

Soon a bloodless test can diagnose HIV infection. ©Shutterstock

HIV is a virus that affects your immunity system and if you don’t treat this virus, it can kill and infect your CD4 cells. Less number of CD4 cells will make you susceptible to develop different infections and cancers. The only way to diagnose HIV, is to undergo HIV tests, which involves checking of your blood or body fluids to identify the infection. The National Aids Research Institute (Nari) has developed a new way to diagnose HIV that includes screening of saliva to test antibodies against HIV in individuals instead of screening blood.

As per the estimates by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry, the total number of people affected by HIV virus are over 21 lakhs. If you experience any symptoms of HIV such as swollen lymph nodes, recurrent fevers, night sweats, fatigue, vomiting, weight loss, skin rashes, recurrent oral or vaginal yeast infections and others, you should visit your doctor and get some HIV tests to diagnose this virus. While the doctors are working on a new test which doesn’t involve blood to diagnose HIV infection, here, we share with you a few tests you can undergo when you experience any of these symptoms.

Antibody screening tests. These tests look for a protein which your body generates when it detects the presence of HIV virus in a bid to defend itself and are also known as immunoassay or ELISA tests. These antibodies develop after 2-8 weeks and the test result is usually very accurate. However, it will not be able to detect initial stages of infection.

RNA test. In this test, your doctor will look for the virus which can identify the presence of HIV in your blood after 10 days of exposure to the infection. This is not the first test, it is very expensive, and your doctor will recommend you to undergo this test only when you are at a high risk and experience flu-like symptoms.

Antigen p24 test. These blood tests will be recommended to you by your doctor which is a fast process(20 days earlier than the antibody screening test) to diagnose the infection as compared to the antibody screening. It looks for a protein called p24 which is a part of the virus. Also, a rapid antigen test can yield results in about 20 minutes.

Antibody differentiation test. This test is performed to differentiate between various types of HIV infections such as HIV-1 virus and HIV-2. Post the test, your doctor can suggest to you, which test is necessary for you depending on your result.

Western blot test. This test is used to confirm a positive diagnosis of HIV, it separates your blood proteins and focusses on HIV antibodies which indicate HIV infection.

Published: February 19, 2019 2:55 pm

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