HIV Support Group

I think in California anyway there is no more unless a test by mail. All must be reported to the CDC now??.................

There is anonymous testing in most states in the USA. But each state makes it's own laws. The current list is here:
http://www.statehealthfacts.org/co...

You can always travel or send your sample to another state.
Testing centers can be looked up here:
http://www.hivtest.org/popups/defi...

AEGIS and theBody are good places to look for information too:
http://www.aegis.com/
http://www.thebody.com/

Although some vaccinations can raise the risk of a false positive HIV ELISA from something like one in 10,000 to one in 1,000 you do not need to delay testing because of that. Just keep it in mind when your results are evaluated, and retest again later if needed.

Thanks for the responses. Just to clarify, if I want to find out my CD4 count and viral load, that is NOT something I can do anonymously, correct? I understand the HIV test is separate from those tests, yes?

Hmmmm...

For viral load, CD4 etc, I am not sure. Clearly this does not fall under what I posted before about determining infection.

If you want to be a little sneaky you can surely get it done, for example working with another HIV seropositive person, have them submit your blood under their name, you pay the fees back to them.

I suspect that most doctors will work with you on anything like this. Or if not, most, at least some doctors will. You can either do the "I have a friend" thing questioning your own doctor, or ask a friend to do that for you.

Please let us know how it works out for you, so the rest of us will know the next time this comes up.

You could also or instead, write to Dr Jeremy or other MD docs here at DS. I am a PhD researcher, not an MD.

Thanks for the tip. That would be sneaky indeed :)

DrDuke, you said...

".......If you want to be a little sneaky you can surely get it done, for example working with another HIV seropositive person, have them submit your blood under their name, you pay the fees back to them.

I suspect that most doctors will work with you on anything like this. Or if not, most, at least some doctors will. You can either do the "I have a friend" thing questioning your own doctor, or ask a friend to do that for you......"

Do you know if there are legalities with submitting your blood under someone else's name? Where best to find another HIV seropositive person or doctor willing to work under the radar in one's state/area...I guess I just wonder what the point of anonymous testing is, since you have to turn around and take a non-anonymous test to monitor your viral load/cd4, etc.

Thanks for the help.