I have 11 months post encounter negative Ag/Ab HIV test

I have 6 months post encounter negative Ag/Ab HIV test & negative PCR HIV-1 Test

Now at 12 months I went for a Antibodies HIV 1/2 test and a separate Antigen P24 test. Results:

Antibodies HIV 1/2 test = NEGATIVE

Antigen P24 test = POSITIVE

Please I need your help what does this means?? Could it be false positive? Why false positive now? Could it be that I have antigen of HIV present up until 12 months and is only showing now??

This is your own fault, the direct result of unnecessary over-testing. Almost any lab test can give false positive results from time to time, and the stand-alone HIV antibody tests do so more frequently than most other types of HIV test. The more someone tests, the more likely they are to experience such a result. You have been seriously over tested and this is just the result of your irrational worry about STDs and HIV, which has led you to compulsive over-testing. As a result, you are now in the throes (understandably) of increased worry that did not need to experience. And the expense and inconvenience of further professional evaluation.

So see an ID or HIV/AIDS specialist. If you have a primary care provider, s/he can refer you. Feel free to let me know the outcome after you have seen the specialist and have his or her evaluation, including the additional testing that will prove (again) you do not have HIV. However, I will have no further comments, advice, or even brief reply until and unless you report that information.

In the meantime, stay relaxed as best you can. You also can go back and carefully read every word of our previous discussion. You do not have HIV.

HHH, MD

- PCR test

I already took this tests today, I will receive the Ag/Ac tests tomorrow but the rest will take longer. If I could only ask you for now, what if any of this tests came back positive? Im thinking if any other virus reacted with the Antigen P24 test, wouldn it react also on the combo test making it also positive? The hopefully false positive test in this case was the stand alone Antigen P24 test. The stand alone Antibodies test came back negative. 

So what would it mean if my combo test tomorrow came back positive? Is it possible Im just now 1 year after exposure having actual true positive results? 

What would you suggest if you were my ID specialist?

Just trying to figure out what to do and think next

- Ag/Ab HIV

- Western Blot

- HIV PCR

- HTLV

I took all these tests and every result was negative / non detected / non reactive. All these were taken 12 months post exposure. The antigens measured in the Western Blot were: P17, P24, P31, GP41, P55, P66, GP120, GP160. Is this a good test? Ive read a few responses in this forums saying it is not such a good test, why is this? Did I get it right?

In my country I have access to good doctor but not as good as you, thats why your answers are so important to me.

My doctor believes that some other viral infection might have caused the antigen P24 to react and give a false positive result. As I understand no any other disease nor medication can affect the HIV test so thats whats worrying me. Remember that it was a stand alone Antigen P24 test that came back positive. What are your thoughts on this? Do you believe theres a chance my body is just recently starting to produce antigen 12 months later and now is in the phase of producing antibodies and everything else? Should I be on the looklout for anything else or additional testing in the near future? 

I know there are “elite controllers”. My doctor says that elite controllers have very few detectable viral load but never “undetectable” without HIV medication.

Don't assume I know any more than your ID doc does:  most likely he has more hands-on experience in the last ten years with HIV infected or potentially infected persons than I do. It's just a guess that some other viral infection might have been responsible for the initial false positive test result. (I now realize I misstakenly said antibody rather than antigen test in my original reply. And no, I do not believe there is any possibility that HIV antigen was only starting to appear 12 months after infection. That never happens. (Antigen is not produced by the infected person:  its part of the virus itself.)

You should not have an HIV PCR test at this time. Your ID doctor also is correct about elite controllers. All the standard diagnostic tests are equally accurate in elite controllers:  the difference is not in diagnostic tests but in their slow progression toward serious immunodeficiency.

That concludes this thread. You can move on with no further worries. In the future, avoid over testing. If you have a truly high risk exposure, have one or two tests over the next 6 weeks; if those results are negative, do not test again. If you do that, you will only risk what happened this time:  the more tests you do, the greater the chance of a false positive result and going through the kind of anxiety that you have experienced the last couple of weeks. In fact, now that you have a relationship with an obviously excellent ID physician, in the event of future exposure I suggest you return and let him guide your testing.

That concludes this thread. Best wishes and stay safe.