Referenced Quotes about HIV/AIDS Tests and Measurements

Window Period

The window period is the time after HIV infection during which a specific test (usually an antibody test) is negative. This is believed to be a few weeks for antibody tests and shorter or longer for genetic tests (PCR, Viral Load) depending on which research you believe. One problem is, in the absence of artificial infection tests (i.e. infecting a human being with pure virus so the date of infection is known) how could you know for sure what the date of infection was?