POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: extremely scared on October 09, 2013, 08:06:01 am
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Dear All,
I had a protected exposure with a prostitute. I had symptoms like a persistent mouth ulcer, one red bump on the chest and 2 on the back.
I was scared and tested for hepatitis a, b and c, hiv (Elisa) at 7 weeks and urine test.
I am in India. I tested negative for hiv and positive for HCV.
I will talk to a GI about HCV. However, how sure can I be that I am HIV negative?
Please advise.
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You say you had protected sex , so that is not a risk for HIV .
If this is your only concern 3 months past your negative HIV test at 7 weeks its definitive that you do not have HIV .
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Thanks Jeff so much for your quick reply.
However, if I had exposure to both the viruses at the same time, can it delay the seroconversion for HIV?
I have never used needles, protected sex was my only exposure.
I dont understand I got HCV? My Cd4 count ( yes I got that done too :)) has reduced from 847 to 454 (percentage from 43.2 to 42.7) While the percentage decline was not much the count did decline?
Does it point to a new HCV infection. I hope I do not need to test for hiv again. I do not have the courage.
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The fact that you are positive for HCV is not a factor because you had protected intercourse . Also , HCV is much easier to catch than HIV and you may well have been exposed to HCV well before this particular incident .
I am confident that you did not have a risk for HIV and you should be too . If you had a risk I would not hesitate to tell you .
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I had protected sex with a prostitute on 15th August.
while taking out the condom, i felt something sticky. Without rinsing my hand..i cupped some water in the hand and gargled with it. I did this quite a few times.
I was too scared to take an Elisa test initially. I did a cd4 count done on 12th September. It was 847 with a a percentage of 43.2
I did a cd4 count again on 8th October. Cd4 count declined to 454 while percentage went down to 42.7
I have tested positive for HCV. I believe that it is this exposure which has caused HCV. Although I may be wrong.
I took Elisa antibody test 54 days after exposure and it came back negative.
How much reassured do you think I should be with this result.
I asked an HIV doctor online and he was concernd. He asked me to test again with a duo test.
I am very afraid to test again however. What can cause my drastic cd4 drop.
Can it be the stress that I am under.
Please advise. I feel depressed.
1. I do not want to split hair, but lets for a moment assume that the condom did not work for some reason( I say this because I believe I got HCV from this encounter). If that was the case, how confident can I be about my negative Elisa at 54 days (2nd or 3rd gen, I am not sure).
2. If I had hcv co-infection, could it have delayed the production of HIV antibodies?
3. Also a drop in cd4 from 847 to 454 from the period between 28th to 54th day of exposure) is it not something to be worried about. What other than this virus can cause such a drastic drop in cd4 counts. Although the percentage decline has been from 43.2 to 42.7
4. I posed these questions to an hiv specialist on a similar forum He sounded worried and wanted me to retest using hiv duo.
5. I am very afraid Jeff, Andy, Ann. Not going to office for the last 4 days. Not sleeping, hardly eating.
I would really appreciate if you could take time out to explain me in detail.
Thanks
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I've merged your threads as it is a rule of this site for members to always write in the same thread. All of your previous entries are together here with your latest question. This is the only thread you should use. Thanks for your cooperation.
You seem to only be listening to your fears and not to what Jeff has told you, which is that you were not at risk for HIV. Then you set about taking tests other than an HIV test because you're afraid an HIV test will confirm your worst fears. The results with other blood tests have no relevance in telling you your accurate HIV status.
Your negative result at 54 days is meaningful and was not a surprise because you had protected sex. (The average time to seroconversion is 22 days.) Condoms provide very effective protection against HIV transmission.
So you are worrying needlessly about HIV. You're HIV negative. You can re-test at 3 months if you want to but doing that would be strictly for your peace of mind. I don't see any HIV science based reason to doubt you will just get another negative result. HCV is a separate problem and doesn't change the fact that you were protected against HIV.
HIV is not your problem. Period.
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The risk factors for HIV are ...
Sharing IV drug needles immediately after use.
Unprotected anal and vaginal sex.
Mother to child during or shortly after birth
Very specific healthcare situations.
If something was wrong with the condom you would have known , condoms fail catastrophically when they are defective or used incorrectly , that is the way they are designed so as to leave no doubt .
You are fighting an HCV infection , that will effect your cd4 count . Your cd4 count would also be effected if you had the flu or food poisoning . I fluctuating cd4 count doesn't mean HIV is a factor .
You seem to not be reading the part where you did not have a risk for HIV , no risk means no HIV , its really that simple .
Std's can cause people with HIV to have high viral loads for HIV but even if a person has a high viral load it means nothing for your chances of contracting HIV unless you had a risk for HIV . HIV does not piggy back onto an STD negating the transmission modes or make a no risk situation into a risk .
Bottom line is if it makes you feel better and safer ask your doctor to test you again for HIV at the appropriate time , but you should expect a negative result since you never had a risk to begin with .