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A member asked:

On prednisone for two weeks. can i do a hiv viral load test and antibody test to rule out hiv for exposure 1 year back? diagnosed with bell's palsy.

A doctor has provided 1 answer
Dr. Hunter Handsfield answered

Specializes in Infectious Disease

Antibody test only: For an HIV exposure that long ago, an antibody test alone is sufficient; an RNA ("viral load") test will be much more expensive and wasted money. Taking prednisone will not have any effect on test reliability.

Answered 8/11/2016

1.1k views

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Cdc HIVtestingAlgorithmRecommendationFinal doc, pge11, say HIV antibodies r antigen r viral load detect by day 50. then y some docs say no? CDC wrong?

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