Do flu vaccinations or pregnancy cause false positive HIV test results?
There are a number of factors, including recent flu vaccination and multiple pregnancies, that may make people more likely to receive a false positive result in the initial screening test for HIV, though such results are still unusual. Confirmatory tests such as the Western blot are used to distinguish between these false positives and genuine HIV infection. The risk of a false positive during confirmatory testing is extremely tiny – around 1 in 250,000 for the Western blot, for example.
There are a number of factors, including recent flu vaccination and multiple pregnancies that may make people more likely to receive a false positive result in the initial screening test for HIV. Though, such results are unusual. Confirmatory tests such as the Western blot are used to distinguish between these false positives and genuine HIV infection. The risk of a false positive during confirmatory testing is extremely tiny – around 1 in 250,000 for the Western blot, for example.
