A. No test is perfect - there may be a very small proportion of people who are not infected with HIV who will have a reactive result on this test (false positive), and a similar small proportion of people who are infected with HIV who will have a non-reactive result (false negative). Also, this test will not detect HIV infection in people who are tested within about 3 months of exposure to the virus (3 months is the time it takes for detectable antibodies to appear in the blood in repsonse to the HIV infection). These limiteations are true for all currently approved HIV antibody tests. For these reasons, it is essential that all individuals who are tested with this rapid test be appropriately counseled both before being tested and after receiving their test results. For those individuals with reactive test results, follow-up testing using another technique is necessary to confirm that the result is positive for HIV antibodies.

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