If you have been tested for HIV infection, you may be told that the result is ‘non-reactive’.
This means that the test did not find any evidence of HIV infection.
You can be confident that you don’t have HIV and that you are HIV negative, so long as you have not been exposed to HIV quite recently, during the test’s window period. HIV diagnostic tests may miss infections that have been acquired in the month before testing.
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. A collection of specific illnesses and conditions which occur because the body's immune system has been damaged by HIV.
Human immunodeficiency virus, the virus which causes AIDS. There are two variants: HIV-1, and HIV-2. HIV-1 is by far the most common worldwide. See ‘subtype’ for more information.
The term may be used to describe either self-testing or self-sampling.
Abbreviation of a Latin term meaning every night.
In HIV testing, when the person testing collects their own sample and performs the whole test themselves, including reading and interpreting the result.
