How long does it take HIV to show?
Depends what you mean by “show”. If you are talking about actual symptoms, then yes, it’s quite common for people to be perfectly well with HIV for some years before getting sick – sometimes ten years or more. If you are talking about the bood test for HIV antibodies, then no. The HIV test will show positive within 3 months 99 per cent of the time, and almost always within six months of infection. What people mean by the “window time” is the time between getting infected and the time signs will show up on blood test, not the time between getting the infection and getting sick.
