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When you attend for a HIV test at the Regents Park Clinic, you see a specialist genito-urinary physician in discrete private surroundings

The GUM doctor takes your history and discusses what an HIV test involves and what the results may means. Your consent is required before an HIV test can be performed and before you give that, we can answer any questions you may have.

At both our sexual health clinics in London and Manchester, we provide three different types of HIV test.  This enables greater accuracy and earlier testing than generally available.

Your specialist Genito-Urinary Medicine (GUM) physician will advise you on which tests you should have.

The standard HIV Antibody Test

The usual way of testing for HIV infection is by testing for the presence of antibodies to the HIV virus in a blood sample. Antibodies are specific proteins which the immune system produces in response to infections. Although 90% of individuals will have detectable antibodies as early as 6 weeks after HIV infection, in 10% of cases antibodies to the HIV virus may not become detectable in a blood sample for up to 12 weeks.

Because of this, a "window" of 12 weeks from exposure is often referred to and using ordinary HIV testing it is is necessary to wait 12 weeks before testing.

The standard HIV antibody test we use at the Regents Park Clinic for patients who are already 12 weeks post-exposure is the INSTI rapid assay test and the Abbott HIV test. These rapid HIV tests detect both HIV 1 and HIV 2 antibodies. The sensitivity of these tests is reported in the medical literature as 99.6% which makes them at least as good as any antibody tests available. The blood is taken from a fingerprick and the results are available in 60 seconds.

The p24 Antigen/Antibody Test (the '28 Day HIV Test')

P24 antigen is a protein derived from the HIV virus. It becomes detectable in a blood sample for a short period after infection (normally from 2 to 5 weeks) and rapidly becomes undetectable when antibodies to HIV start to develop. It is therefore useful in identifying early HIV infection.

The P24 antigen test is combined with an antibody test and this test is known as the HIV DUO test.  Using P24 testing reduces the window from 12 weeks to 4 weeks post-exposure.

The HIV DUO test is recordes as 99.8% accurate at 28 days and is now the test of choice recommended by the UK Guidelines on HIV testing 2008.

Results are available within 24 hours.

The 'Early' HIV-1 Proviral Test

Another way to test for HIV infection (other then looking for antibodies and proteins) is to test for the HIV virus itself..  We test for the genetic material (DNA/RNA) of the HIV virus in a blood sample.

Proviral testing uses a complex technique called PCR to detect the virus.

This test reduces the window from exposure to only 10 days.  Because of the complexity of the test, the result takes apprimately 5 working days.

Proviral testing detects HIV with a sensitivity of 96 to 99%. 

If you have Proviral testing you may be advised to have a standard HIV test in addition after the twelve-week window has elapsed to provide additional confirmation.

If your HIV test is positive...

If your HIV test result is positive, this will need to be confirmed with a further set of three confirmatory HIV tests to ensure that it is not a false positive. The likelihood of receiving a false positive is around 4 in 1000 for a standard HIV test and less then 1 in 100 for a HIV-1 Proviral test. The confirmatory tests yield a result within 24 hours.

If HIV infection is confirmed, we advise you on what you need to do next and we guide you to the appropriate HIV services, either through the NHS or privately.