Yes. Sometimes, after many years of negative HPV tests, an infection that the immune system had previously controlled can become active again, resulting in an HPV-positive test result. Such reactivation of an old, previously undetectable HPV infection can happen due to age-related changes in the immune system. When an HPV test is positive, there is no way to tell whether it is a sign of a new infection or represents a reactivation of an old infection. It is also not yet known whether reactivated HPV infections are more likely to cause cell changes that lead to precancer and cancer compared with new infections.