HIV rapid test

Do I have HIV?

HIV is a virus that is transmitted through the mucous membranes, sperm and blood. The virus reduces your resistance. This can cause various symptoms and complaints. Sometimes people experience flu-like symptoms shortly after contracting HIV. These can include fever, swollen lymph glands, sore throat, skin rash, recent weight loss, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and joint pain. This is considered an acute HIV infection.

You can also contract HIV without noticing it and develop symptoms later. This can be after two years or after ten years, this cannot be predicted and differs from person to person. This is considered a chronic HIV infection.

For more information about risk moments and symptoms of HIV, see: www.hebikhiv.nl.

HIV rapid test

To ascertain whether you have HIV or not, you can take a HIV rapid test. The HIV rapid test is a validated test that shows whether there are antibodies in the blood against the HIV virus. A positive test means that the HIV virus is in the blood. If the test is negative, no HIV virus is present. You can take the HIV rapid test if you were at risk of infection at most four weeks ago, for example through unsafe sexual contact or a needlestick incident. The rapid test is not reliable if it has been longer than four weeks since the possible moment of infection.