This happened to me! Pre-op blood work came back positive for HIV, so I went to the infectious disease doctor, was tested again, negative this time with confirmatory testing, I even went as far as to have my 6 month old baby tested, which was negative. My doc says RA can cause false positives. I have been tested again and it was still negative. Doc says that I need to have ONLY the confirmatory test done.
Q: Has anyone heard that RA can cause false positive HIV and other STD test?
Answers (3)
6/19/09 7:54pm
I've never heard of that, either. I can imagine it must've been quite scary for you! It sounds like you had enough tests to confirm that you're negative that you should be able to relax now.
6/14/09 6:44pm
Nope, that's a new one on me.
Sorry that happened to you!
Kelly
7/ 1/09 11:11pm
Something like this has happened to me ,I have tested positive for Hep C ,then had confirmed negitive test,only to be here with another positive test again!This makes me very upset ,and I start to panick, why does this keep happening to me!I have never used drugs,so needle sharing is irralivant , my point is I have also been told by more than one doctor that this is because my RA confuses these tests, but that does not make me feel any better.it makes me mad!I have 3 kids and this really scares me,so here I am going through what I did 7 years ago another questionable test,I hope things turn out good for both of us, you are not alone I hope you find some comfort in that. p.s........If this test is normal I don't think I want to put myself though this kind of torchure any more!
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By FRAN— Last Modified: 12/23/10, First Published: 06/14/09
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I have had a false positive syphilis result in addition to the H.I.V. false positive. My doc said that it happens because R.A. is an auto immune disease and thats why it causes us to have false positive results.