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What if you are HIV positive but test negative at a later point?
HIV expert Dr Sindisiwe van Zyl says that, generally, if a person has been on antiretroviral treatment (ARV) for a long time, the HIV antibodies in their system go down.
If that person were to take an HIV ELISA fingerprick test, there is a high chance that the test would come back as negative or the positive line would be extremely faint.
This is why if someone is on treatment and they say 'they have been healed', she always requests a laboratory HIV ELISA test where blood is taken from a vein in the arm and sent to a lab.
Ask Dr Van Zyl your questions about HIV and Aids and read other users' Q&As.
