hey guys, 90 days is 3 days away for me and I am curious as to exactely what an Elisa test is, a blood test or a swab of some type, what is the procedure of this test, and how long do results usually take? Is the Elisa test something I request when I go to my doctor or is that the standard blood test they usually use when testing for HIV. I had a blood test done very shortly after the incident ( maybe a week ) which tested for the actual virus I think. Fill me in please because I want the most accurate results!!! Thank you all seriously through all of this. It's a terrible thing to go through and its like we're all so worried with questions and I just wanted to calm down for a second to say thanks honestly. You're all great people.

Hey there,

Well it is late and i am a little pooped but i would be more than happy to fill you in as when i was posting questions, input from others was invaluable. So to answer some of your questions..................

Well and ELISA test is the main test they do to see if someone is infected with HIV. This test is usually done by taking blood from a patient just like any other blood test. What happens is when you are exposed to HIV your body will make antibodies that will be used by the immune system to try and fight against the virus. These antibodies will be specific to various parts of the virus (like a protein on the outside of the virus). So in the test they use a protein that is highly conserved across different strains of virus' where if a person is infected they will have made antibodies to this protein. So they will mix your serum containing the antibodies (if you are +) with this protein and the antibodies will bind to the protein. Then they add a secondary antibody which is synthetic (made in a lab) and this will recognize the antibody of the patient IF it is bound to this protein. Since this secondary antibody has some sort of visualization method (like radioactivty) the lab tech will be able to tell if it is bound to this primary antibody. So in essence if you are positive your antibody will bind to this protein and the synthetic antibody will bind to your antibody made against the virus and will be able to be visualized and reveal a positive test. I sure hopes this makes sense and isnt to confusing and that what i am saying is correct as well. THis test is very accurate and will never say negative if you are positive. The only mistake that can be made is it will say positive if you are negative. This is why anyone who is positive after this test is further tested with a western blot.

I think it is a pretty easy and accurate test to do which is why it is used. I think it can be done in a few hours. OF course there will be other people ahead of you and i think usually it will take a few days to a week i guess depending where you get it done.

You dont have to request an ELISA test as when you get tested for HIV this will be the one that they do.

IF you got tested for the presence of the actual virus itself i think this will be a PCR test. This will test for the presence of viral genome in your body and is highly accurate. I think this is a good sign that it is negative however your 90 day ELISA test will really put your mind at ease if it is negative and you can put this all behind you.

I sure hope this helped you out and if you are confused still ask some more questions as i would be more than happy to help you out!

Greg

Thank you so much for some answers! So if my results are negative, I can finally relax and be sure that I am not infected? or is testing at six months still required?

i agree with psuman, i would only get tested at 6 months if you had a really high risk exposure.