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HIV & HIV testing

Below you'll find useful information about HIV and HIV tests. If you decide that you want to use an HIV home test you can order one through this website.
HIV - what is it?
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) attacks and slowly destroys a person's immune system. HIV thereby reduces a person's ability to fight infection and cancers. HIV is not the same as AIDS. AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS is not a single condition but a term used when a person infected with HIV starts to get one or more specific illness that the immune system can no longer defend against. The word AIDS is now very rarely used. It’s more usual to talk of late-stage or advanced HIV infection.
HIV - how common is it?
In the UK, people with HIV tend to be men who have sex with men or people of sub-Saharan African origin. Although in the UK men who have sex with men are the group most affected by HIV, since 2003 the majority of people being diagnosed with HIV became infected through heterosexual sex, mostly abroad. In the UK there are also roughly 1,800 people who became infected with HIV through infecting drugs and around a 1,000 children who became infected with HIV because their mothers have HIV. There are around 700 people in the UK who became infected with HIV through blood transfusions and blood products.
HIV - how can a person become infected with HIV?
Compared to other viruses, HIV is not passed on easily. This is because HIV is present in a person's body fluids, and for an HIV infection to pass from one person to another, the body fluids of someone with HIV have to get into another person's body and then into their bloodstream. The main ways that HIV infection is transmitted are: • Sexual intercourse and other sexual activities • From mother to baby • From blood to blood The body fluids that typically contain enough HIV to infection someone else are: • seminal fluid • vaginal fluids, including menstrual fluids • breast milk • blood • the mucous found in the rectum • pre-cum (the fluid that the penis produces for lubrication before ejaculation) Other body fluids, like saliva, sweat or urine, do not contain enough of the HIV virus to infect another person. A person's saliva sample can be used, however, to test for HIV. Indeed, the HIV home test we use on this website uses a saliva sample to test for HIV.
HIV - what are the symptoms?
HIV weakens the body's ability to fight off infection, so as your body's defenses weaken the following symptoms of HIV infection may become visible: • unintentional weight loss • chronic diarrhoea • skin rashes, especially on your face, genitals or anus • an increase in herpes ulcers or thrush infections in your mouth and genitals • sweats, especially at night • unusual tiredness • nausea or loss of appetite • swollen lymph glands in the neck, groin or armpits. If you experience all or some of these symptoms regularly, it's probably a good idea to have an HIV test, but it goes without saying that many other conditions cause these symptoms too, so you shouldn't panic.
HIV tests – what do they look for?
An HIV test is the only way to know whether you have HIV. An HIV test doesn't look for the HIV virus itself but looks for antibodies to the HIV virus. Antibodies are made in your blood when an HIV infection is in your body.
HIV tests - what are the diffences between a blood test and a home test?
The traditional way to test for HIV is to go to a clinic where someone will take a sample of your blood and test that blood sample for HIV antibodies. An HIV blood test is the only type of test that can diagnose someone as having an HIV infection. HIV home tests are different. An HIV home test provides a way of testing for HIV without having to go anywhere. HIV home tests work by collecting a sample at home, sending the sample off to a laboratory, and waiting for a doctor to convey the result to you. Unlike an HIV blood test, an HIV home test using saliva can't diagnose someone as having an HIV infection, but it can tell you that no signs of HIV antibodies were found. In other words, an HIV home test can tell you that you're HIV negative, but can't tell you that you're HIV positive.
HIV tests - are blood tests or saliva home tests more accurate?
HIV blood tests are more accurate than HIV home tests using a saliva sample, but both are still very accurate.
HIV tests - are there other key differences between blood tests and saliva home tests?
The very nature of HIV home tests is that you won’t receive the face to face support that you’d typically receive in a clinic or at your doctor’s, so you need to make sure that you’re comfortable with the remote nature of an HIV home test.
HIV tests - when should I have one?
How long it takes for HIV antibodies to show up depends upon where you're looking for HIV antibodies in blood or saliva. It can take up to three months after infection with HIV before the antibodies show up in your blood, but up to three and a half months in your saliva. This delay is called the 'window period'. A test done before the 'window period' is over isn't reliable because the test may find no antibodies - so you will appear free of HIV - even though the reality is that you have been infected (and could pass HIV on to others).
How do I interpret the results of an HIV blood test?
If you have a test after the 'window period' - three months for a blood test, three and a half months for a saliva home test - and no antibodies are found, the result is said to be negative and you're almost certain not to have HIV. But if you take risks again you could become HIV positive later on. A negative HIV test doesn't protect you from getting infected in the future. If antibodies to HIV have been found in a blood sample then the test result is positive and you have HIV. This means that you could pass it on to others through unprotected sex, giving blood or sharing needles if you inject drugs. If you did any of these during the time between getting HIV and having the test then you may have passed on the virus during that period, and should tell those involved so that they can have an HIV test too. HIV test results using a blood sample are very reliable. To make sure no-one is given the wrong result, a positive result is only given after the blood has been tested several times.
How do I interpret results of an HIV home test using a saliva sample?
The way to interpret results from an HIV home test using saliva is different. An HIV home test using saliva can not diagnose someone with HIV. An HIV home test using saliva can only say that no sign of HIV infection was found in the saliva sample. If you took the test after the three and a half month 'window period' for HIV saliva tests and no sign of HIV antibodies were found, you will told that the test was negative and this means that you are almost certain not to have HIV. If the HIV saliva test can not rule out the presence of HIV antibodies, a doctor will telephone you to say that your HIV saliva test was 'reactive'. Having a 'reactive' result does not mean that you are HIV positive. Having a 'reactive' result simply means that you have a higher risk of being HIV positive and you need to have a follow-up HIV blood test.
Where can I get an HIV test?
You can get an HIV blood test at a Terrence Higgins Trust Fastest clinic, an NHS genito-urinary medicine (GUM) clinic or potentially at your GP or a local private clinic. If you can't get to a clinic for an HIV blood test and you think that a home test using saliva might by right for you, we offer an HIV home test kit on this website.
HIV - where can I go for more information about HIV?
For detailed information about HIV and AIDS, go to the Terrence Higgins Trust's main website www.tht.org.uk
DrThom works in partnership with Terrence Higgins Trust, bpas and Lloydspharmacy   |  Pharmacy registration no: RPSGB 1094381

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