I am currently on PrEP and get tested at my doctor’s office every three months. In September-December, I did refrain from taking PrEP due to lack of sexual activity but restarted my daily use and was on it for at least 7 days before restarting sexual activity. In early April, my standard HIV test came back as positive. I was told to immediately stop PrEP and to begin taking Dovato, and to come back for a “confirmation” test the next day. This confirmation test (both “HIV Ab/p24 Ag screen” and "RNA, Real Time PCR”) came back as negative. I then stopped Dovato, and did not take any medication for a period of approximately two weeks. I was then re-tested (“HIV Ab/p24 Ag screen” and "RNA, Real Time PCR” and a comprehensive blood panel), and all tests came back as negative for HIV. At this time, I restarted my daily use of PrEP. I have had repeated rapid tests and laboratory tests (both “HIV Ab/p24 Ag screen” and "RNA, Real Time PCR”) performed monthly since then and all have come back negative. My most recent was the first week of October, approximately 6-months after the positive test – this, too, returned as negative and no viral load detected. I was told by my doctor that I am, in fact, HIV-negative, and that it was most likely a false positive. How confident can I be in my results after this 6-month period?

Thank you so much for your reply – I do have a follow up question: is it possible that the virus is “hiding” in my system? In other words, could the PrEP medication I take every day be keeping the virus suppressed despite the repeated “negative” test results?