Jun
It was abt 6 months from my unprotected sex with a prost. where my condom broke inside. This day i went for a test in a nearby pathology centre … He told me that he did the elisa test and was negative .. He gave me the result in just two hours .. I have dowt in it ie. Is elisa available in remote area?Can it be done in that much of time?How much it costs ?coz he took only 200 indian rupee{aprox. 5 us dollar} And how much accurate is the elisa test?
Answer:
Elisa test is VERY accurate and especially at the six month mark; at that point, the test is considered conclusive.
You can have an elisa test result back within 20 minutes. Elisa tests are also available at any health department/clinic facility. And many places don’t charge for HIV testing, some will charge between $4.00 - $10.00.
Standard HIV tests are considered accurate at 3 months. A fraction of one percent of people may take up to 6 months to seroconvert (create the antibodies the HIVtests look for).
HIV is active virtually instantly once inside the body.
More than 99.9% of people experience a window period of 3 months or less. 95% - less than 2 months. 75% less than 20 days.
Most authorities consider the window period to be 3 months.
Also the gentlman's reply that the tests are only 50% accurate is dead wrong. Of course, nothing is 100% accurate but I believe the rates are as followed:
“A huge study of HIV testing in 752 U.S. laboratories reported a sensitivity of 99.7% and specificity of 98.5% for enzyme immunoassay, and studies in U.S. blood donors reported specificities of 99.8% and greater than 99.99%. With confirmatory Western blot, the chance of a false-positive identification in a low-prevalence setting is about 1 in 250 000″
GOOD LUCK!!