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Falsely reactive HIV screens have been reported in patients with various concomitant infectious and autoimmune conditions. Falsely positive confirmatory HIV differentiation assays are seen less frequently, but have been observed in cases of pregnancy, pulmonary embolism, and malaria.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n<jats:title>Case presentation<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>A healthy 27\u2009year-old man was referred after a reactive ADVIA Centaur\u00ae HIV Ag\/Ab screen and positive Bio-Rad Geenius\u2122 HIV 1\/2 Confirmatory assay, suggesting HIV-1 infection. The patient\u2019s HIV viral load was undetectable prior to initiation of antiretroviral therapy, and remained undetectable on subsequent testing after initiation of antiretroviral therapy. Both Centaur\u00ae and Geenius\u2122 tests were repeated and returned reactive. As this patient was believed to be at low risk of acquiring HIV infection, samples were additionally run on Genscreen\u2122 HIV-1 Ag assay and Fujirebio Inno-LIA\u2122 HIV-1\/2 score, with both returning non-reactive. For confirmation, the patient\u2019s proviral HIV DNA testing was negative, confirming the initial results as being falsely positive. The patient disclosed that he had been using a variety of anabolic steroids before and during the time of HIV testing.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n<jats:title>Discussion and conclusions<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The erroneous diagnosis of HIV can result in decreased quality of life and adverse effects of antiretroviral therapy if initiated, hence the importance of interpreting the results of HIV testing in the context of an individual patient. This reports suggests a potential association between the use of anabolic steroids and falsely-reactive HIV testing.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s12879-019-4722-8","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,6]],"date-time":"2020-01-06T17:02:55Z","timestamp":1578330175000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Repeated false reactive ADVIA centaur\u00ae and bio-rad Geenius\u2122 HIV tests in a patient self-administering anabolic steroids"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"20","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2330-2207","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Polly","family":"Tsybina","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Maurice","family":"Hennink","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tania","family":"Diener","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jessica","family":"Minion","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Amanda","family":"Lang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Stephanie","family":"Lavoie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"John","family":"Kim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Alexander","family":"Wong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"4722_CR1","volume-title":"Human immunodeficiency virus\u2013HIV screening and testing guide","author":"Public Health Agency of Canada","year":"2014","unstructured":"Public Health Agency of Canada. 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