Hi Dr Sean,
I have a question. About 1 year ago you posted the statement below on this forum. Regarding the testing immediately at the end of PEP for reassurance, do you still do this test? Have you still had nobody change from negative to positive at a later date? What % of people take the test immediately at the end of PEP,
Thanks in advance,
With regard to the testing schedule after PEP, currently UK Guidelines which have just been revised say that you should have a 4th generation combined antibody/antigen test at 12 weeks after completion of PEP.
We dod commonly perform HIV DUO tests = 4th generation as described above, immediately at end of PEP - for reassurance purposes at request of patient. These give a very good indication as to status and whilst every scenario re risk etc is different, we have never had a DUO performed immediately at end of the PEP change from negative to positive later.
Yes, the situation remains the same - ie of those patients we test immediately or very shortly after finishing PEP who have a negative HIV DUO (or PCR) test none have subsequently gone on - in our direct experience - then to test HIV positive at the recommended guideline interval of three months after finishing PEP.
I can't answer your other question as to numbers of patients testing after PEP because we see either 1) patients who have accessed PEP via the NHS and who the NHS may not want to test immediately afterwards and so they come to us or 2) those patients for whom we have privately provided PEP.
These obviously represent a proportion - and an unknown proportion - of those people nationwide who use PEP. As far as I am aware there is no published collected data on numbers of people using PEP on an annual basis.
Testing after PEP
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