Other issues

The guidelines do not recommend repeat testing for most groups of patients, except when a recent infection may not have been identified because of the ‘window period’ (the time after HIV infection when tests are unable to detect infection).

Nonetheless men who have sex with men and injecting drug users should be offered an annual HIV test. However, annual tests are not specifically recommended for people from high-prevalence countries.

In terms of testing technology, fourth-generation assays (which test both for HIV antibody and p24 antigen) are recommended. The guidelines recommend that results should be available within 72 hours.

The guidelines also cover the testing of babies, children and adolescents – for more information see the relevant section. Similarly, testing in pregnancy is covered elsewhere.