Publication date: Jul 01, 2025
Diagnosis of acute human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and rapid initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) are the cornerstones in HIV elimination. Fourth- and fifth-generation HIV enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) can detect patients with acute infection. However, HIV false-positive results can occur, requiring confirmatory nucleic acid amplification testing, which is expensive and may not be available. This review highlights reports on various infections and vaccines causing false-positive reactivity in fourth-generation HIV immunoassays. Despite the improvements in tests of HIV immunoassays, false-positive results may occur, which require continuous updates in testing algorithms to be used appropriately with newer assays. Many factors can result in false-positive HIV serological assays, such as COVID-19, several viral, bacterial or parasitic infections, and vaccines. Physicians should be aware of the causes of false-positive HIV reactions and include them in the clinical assessment of suspected cases and consider confirmatory testing.
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Bacterial | COVID‐19 |
| Covid | ELISA |
| Fifth | false‐positive |
| Hiv | fourth‐generation |
| Therapy | HIV |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 |
| disease | MESH | infections |
| disease | IDO | immunodeficiency |
| disease | IDO | infection |
| disease | IDO | acute infection |
| disease | IDO | nucleic acid |
| disease | MESH | parasitic infections |
| disease | MESH | causes |