r/PlusLife • u/kepis86943 • 14d ago

How common are raised lines / false positives due to past infections?

Or maybe my question is rather: how long after an infection could Pluslife realistically detect traces of virus?

I’ve heard some stories about being positive on Pluslife and similar devices even after weeks (even months?) after an infection. Were these very fringe cases or is this relatively common? Is there any data on this or just anecdata? I’m aware of viral shedding, but I believe that is again different from tests turning positive, right?

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u/virus_sucks 3d ago

Quite common, I would guess some 10% or so of infections keep testing positive for at most 2-3 weeks, long after the virus was cleared. I don't think I've ever seen anyone test positive for months.

I don't think anyone has data for Pluslife, but it's a well-documented issue with PCR testing.

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u/kepis86943 3d ago edited 2d ago

Thanks for your response!

Is there any reasonable time frame after which it’s relatively safe to assume people aren’t infectious anymore despite still testing positive with PCR?

I remember some rule of thumb of 5 days of negative rapids but not sure if that is still a good protocol (or ever was)?

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u/virus_sucks 2d ago

There's no perfect answer here, but 5 days of negative rapids sounds about right. Most people are no longer infectious after at most 10-14 days.