What Is HIV Seroconversion?

Seroconversion is the point at which an HIV-positive person has enough antibodies to the virus in her system that a standard screening test will be able to detect them. This point is significant in reaching a diagnosis of HIV infection.

Features

• After primary infection with HIV, the immune system will begin to respond to the infection by producing antibodies to the antigen (virus). Unfortunately, it is precisely the cells of the immune system that are the target of HIV.

Significance

• Once a large enough number of antibodies to HIV has developed within a person's system that they will show up on a screening test, that individual is said to have seroconverted.

Time Frame

• Most people develop a diagnostically significant level of HIV antibodies within a month after infection; however, this process at times takes up to 6 months.

Detection

• Tests of blood and oral fluids are most commonly used to screen for the presence of HIV antibodies. Other tests, which screen for the genetic code (RNA) of the virus directly are not directly tied to seroconversion and can detect infection before it occurs (see link in References).

Considerations

• Because seroconversion can take up to 6 months, screening tests undergone within this window after a possible infection may return a false negative.