Mann-O-Meter

Mann-O-Meter : Mann-O-Meter e.V. was founded as the first gay switchboard in Germany in 1985 and has since become an integral part of Berlin’s gay community. Mann-O-Meter is known beyond the borders of the capital as the Gay Switchboard and is the first address for both international visitors and Berliners when it comes to information about gay life. Even if Berlin’s gay checkpoint hardly resembles an AIDS aid project at first glance, education, prevention and information on questions and problems relating to HIV/AIDS are the main concerns of our work.

HIV: Various test methods
Rapid HIV and HIV lab tests do not directly test for HIV. They detect so-called antibodies, which the body only produces a few weeks after HIV transmission. The period between transmission and detectability is called the diagnostic window. This period is six weeks for the laboratory test (4th generation) and three months for the rapid test. Only then can an HIV infection be reliably detected or ruled out with the appropriate test. If another transmission risk has arisen within this period, you should carry out another test six weeks or three months later.

The rapid test is not an early detection test. “Fast” does not mean that you can get tested shortly after a risk, but that only a few minutes elapse between taking a blood sample and reading the result.