If the patient’s rapid test is preliminary positive and a confirmatory result is urgently needed, how can we obtain an expedited result?

The Illinois Perinatal HIV Hotline offers expedited confirmatory HIV testing at Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Immunology Laboratory in Chicago for calls to the Hotline in which an urgent confirmatory HIV test result is needed for obstetrical decision making. The specimens are processed with an antigen/antibody combination immunoassay for detection of p24 antigen and HIV-1/2 antibodies, and then an HIV-1/2 antibody differentiation assay for any reactive Combo Ag/Ab tests. Please call the Illinois Perinatal HIV Hotline for information regarding how to prepare and ship the specimen and click here for further instructions.