Screening for HIV is a test for HIV antibodies that costs about $100, which may vary by level of hospital and by region. There are two types of HIV antibodies: negative and positive. If it is negative, it is not considered to be infected with HIV; if it is positive, further confirmatory tests are needed because the initial screening for HIV antibodies may be false positive and only if the confirmatory test is also positive, then HIV infection is diagnosed. For HIV antibody screening, you can go to your local CDC for the test, which is generally free of charge, and if the initial screening is positive at the CDC, the confirmatory test will be done for free.