Right now I'm drawing out the blood levels that we typically see of P24. And you can see its concentrations do rise and fall fairly quickly here. And this test is one that looks for an HIV specific protein called P24. But there's actually this other test that's often done at the same That a way of diagnosing an HIV infection, by looking for stuff our immune So you see, our window period that you might get a false negative in now has also decreased. We're just better atĭetecting their presence within our bloodstream now with our tests. So we can detect them earlier, not because we're makingĪntibodies any faster these days. It's like a month in, just like on this graph, although it can take longer We can detect antibodies almost as soon as they Got better lab technology, better antibody tests that let us pick up on these HIV antibodies a lot sooner. Stage are the most infectious, right at the beginning when the infection is just sort of established. So during this two month window period, there's a risk of gettingĪ false negative result, a negative result despite That they didn't have HIV when in fact they did. Have come in to get tested for HIV before this two month period, and they might be told Had to have been infected for almost two monthsīefore we could start to detect antibodies in their bloodstream. The day a few decades ago our technology wasn'tĪs good as it is now. Immune cells can remain alive to be making antibodies. So we're starting to getĪ handle on the virus. Partially because remember HIV disrupts our immune systems, right. So look here, you see theĪntibody level start to rise about a month after infection. Of these antibodies is the most common way we diagnose HIV. And looking for these antibodies, right, testing for the presence And it takes about a month or so for most people to So after exposure to the virus our immune system is gonna kick in, right.

I will go to a few months here and then we'll, a few years down here. So after an HIV infection happens, actually let me draw a graph Of the virus itself, maybe some of its enzymes or its proteins or some RNA. So we can look forĪntibodies that we've made against the HIV virus or we can look for bits So we look for a few differentĬompounds within the blood. But that doesn't meanĭiagnose HIV on symptoms, then how do we do it? How do we make a diagnosis? Well, we do blood tests. I'm sure every one of us hasįelt that way in the past. You know, a headache or maybe some muscle pains or joint pains or you might have a sore throat. And the reason why is because its symptomsĪre really non-specific. So how do you diagnose HIV? I mean, normally when you're feeling sick, you can just kind of go to the doctor and tell them your symptoms and they might just be able

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