Originally Posted by
medicine man
Just to expand on El Gordo's note:
The incubation period is the time from exposure to symptoms arriving and/or detection in blood or swabs.
Gonorrhea
The incubation period for Gonorrhea is usually 2 to 7 days.
Chlamydia
The incubation period for Chlamydia is usually 2 to 6 weeks, but can be longer.
Syphilis
The incubation period for Syphilis is usually 10 to 90 days.
HIV
The window period for HIV is usually 2 weeks to 3 months, but could be up to 6 months.
Hepatitis A
The incubation period for Hepatitis A is 15 to 50 days.
Hepatitis B
The incubation period for Hepatitis B is usually 45-180 days, with an average of 60 to 90 days.
Hepatitis C
The incubation period for Hepatitis C ranges from 2 weeks to 6 months - commonly, 6 to 9 weeks.
Herpes
The incubation period for Herpes Simplex (1 or 2) is usually 6 to 8 days for a first exposure.
First exposure could be the first time your genitals sees it, even though you've had an occasional cold sore since you were a kid.
i.e. it has got into a different part of the body.
Hope that helps you good people on why the time to detection varies.
MM