:eek:i know this person that had unprotected sex for the first time and was scared of contracting hiv and the partner did a test and was negative. Does this mean the person should not worry or should the person take one also?

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Originally Posted by shanny_2006

:eek:i know this person that had unprotected sex for the first time and was scared of contracting hiv and the partner did a test and was negative. Does this mean the person should not worry or should the person take one also?

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It's a bit more complicated than a simple yes or no. There can be some lag time between infection and development of antibodies which the test pick ups, and that can be up to 3 months. So a negative test does not necessarily mean the person is negative. If the person testing negative had not had sex for 3 months prior to the test (assuming no other risk factors like IV drug use) then the negative test would be a true negative. I've heard there is a more modern test that cuts the lag time down or eliminates it but I'm not sure how often it is used (supposedly it's more expensive than the standard test).

Of course it also matters what you mean by "had sex". This can have reference to many things, some with virtually zero risk, some with low risk, some high, some in between.

So without more info it's impossible to answer the question.

The person waited 8 months before being tested

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Originally Posted by shanny_2006

the person waited 8 months before being tested

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If that's with no risk factors in the interim, then the person is okay and the other one is okay too.

OK