 During this immensely variable "window period," people infected with HIV test "negative" because they have very few antibodies fighting the virus, as a direct consequence of which they also have very high levels of HIV in their bodies.These recently infected persons are usually unaware that they are infected at all, and firmly though wrongly believe that recent "HIV-negative" test results "prove" that they are not infected and cannot infect others.During his lifetime, Gendin was largely ignored in warning about the high risk of transmission from persons testing negative during this time period which researchers have dubbed the "window period".