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In general, antibody tests that use blood can detect HIV slightly sooner after infection than tests done with oral fluid. It can take 3 to 12 weeks (21-84 days) for an HIV-positive personâs body to make enough antibodies for an antibody test to detect HIV infection. This is called the window period.
There are different types of HIV Tests, and each type has a different window period. We have a more in depth article about HIV test window periods. A test taken at least 12 weeks (3 months) after exposure to the virus provides highly accurate results. In rare cases, a person could take up to six months to test positive using standard tests, and that is almost always a person with a severely compromised immune system due to another disease, such as leukemia.