How Reliable Is HIV Testing?

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Doctor Savage. You are wondering how reliable is HIV testing. There are a couple of common ways to screen for HIV and that's what we are talking about here. The conventional intravenous blood sample HIV antibody test is fairly accurate. Studies have shown it's approximately ninety nine point five percent sensitive for diagnosing HIV. That means that one out of every two hundred people that test positive in with this test actually don't have HIV so it's not perfect, it's not a hundred percent. Recently a lot of testing centers have taken to the more rapid testing where you can actually find out the same day the results of your test. That is slightly less sensitive, it's about ninety nine percent. That means about one out of every one hundred people who test positive actually don't have HIV. So if there's any question regarding the test, the next step to do is to be retested and if it's a rapid test of course then we would go to the more sensitive test, the IV blood sample test. Once that actually is screened to be positive there are further tests to do but at that point it's still not one hundred percent. That's something that you would also take up with your primary care physician or health care provider, when you are there at the doctors office or at the testing center. I trust this has been informative to you. I'm Doctor Savage here's to your health."