HIV test result disclosure

Sir: I read the recent publication by Tayal and Chawla with great interest. ¹ Tayal and Chawla got the problematic case of disclosure of preliminary HIV test result that is finally discordant with the confirmation test. ¹ Indeed, the false positive in HIV screening can be expected and the discordance between screening and confirmation tests can be seen in real laboratory medicine practice (which can be due to many aetiologies ranging from false positive, error in specimen identification, disguised second specimen from the patients, etc.). Indeed, the HIV result is considered as a high-risk laboratory report that can be the problem in clinical practice. There must be a specific protocol for the disclosure of results to prevent the problem as described in the case report by Tayal and Chawla. ² If the misinforming of laboratory results occurs, then management ranging from ‘ apologizing’ to ‘correction of the hassle for the patients’ should be done. ³