To test, or not to test ?
	It can be scary to consider, but taking the HIV test is one of the best ways to stay healthy. Finding out that you have HIV can be an important step toward taking care of your health and planning for the future. Learning that you are HIV negative, too, can help you to figure out how to stay that way. It is most helpful to take the test in a situation where the test is voluntary, anonymous, or confidential. How accurate are the home rapid tests? Our tests are 99.99% accurate. What about the window period for HIV testing validity? The HIV test looks for antibodies in a person's blood. When HIV (which is a virus) enters a person's body, special chemicals are produced. These are called antibodies. Antibodies are the body's response to an infection. So if a person has antibodies to HIV in their blood, it means they have been infected with HIV (an exception is the case of an HIV negative baby born to a positive mother, who will retain her antibodies for some months). Most people develop these antibodies within 3 months of infection. In rare cases, it can take up to 6 months. It would be extremely uncommon to take longer than 6 months for antibodies to develop. It is also important that you are not at further risk of getting infected with HIV during this time period. The test is only accurate if there are no other exposures between the time of possible exposure to HIV and testing. The only way to know for sure whether you are infected with HIV is to have an HIV antibody test. It is not possible to tell from any symptoms.