am i positive

[ab]

Hi,

         i had sex with a prostitute on  27/Aug in Thailand. I used condom during the intercourse but i think my condom break. I was a bit drunk that i was not aware of the breakage and continue the intercourse. Five days later, On 1 Sep, i have an HIV test. the hospital used three methods to test my blood. the first method return Positive, and two other tests return negative. I was scare and insist the doctor to perform another test on September 2. the test result return on Sep 8 and it's still the same result - One positive and two negatives. I went to different hospital and perform the hiv test again on sep 8. the result return on sep 15 and it's still one positive and two negatives. I explain my case to the doctor and the doctor suggest me to take PCR HIV DNA test. and i agree to take the test and the test result return on 30 Sep, which is negative. The doctor told me that I'm negative and i shouldn't be worried about the positive result. But when i do Google search, it says PCR HIV DNA test is conclusive only after 28 days of exposure. In my case it's only been 18 days... what should i do now...

sorry for my bad English...

[jkinatl2]

If you indeed had unprotected sex, a test at three months past the incident (27 November) will be conclusive.

[ab]

can anyone assess my situation... what is the possibility of me having HIV virus?? if i contract with HIV during the intercourse on Aug/27, would HIV antibody/antigen react to my blood in five days... what does it mean by "antigen". is it a protein from virus or from our immune system? if antibody/antigen test can detect HIV related substances, why can't PCR DNA test, which is known to be more sensitive and specific....

I'm so confused and desperate...

[RapidRod]

You have been given your assessment.

[Andy Velez]

False positives are not uncommon and happen for all sorts of reasons.

Even if the condom broke the risk would have been minimal. And if it broke that would have been very obvious because the whole thing looks like a hoop with fringe on your penis. It's not about little holes as people often fear.

You had a single possible exposure. HIV is a fragile virus. It is significantly harder to transmit from female to male than the other way around. Given what you have reported I expect you to ultimately test negative. Stop getting caught up in all sorts of details. You can do a standard test at 6 weeks. Assuming the result is negative as I expect it will be, then at 13 weeks the negative will likely be negative again.

The real red flag in all of this is your having been "slightly drunk" as you describe it. Mixing casual sex with excessive drinking is a very risky combination. Avoid that in the future. Ultimately I expect you to come out of this ok.  

[ab]

Thank you so much for your answer,

         two days after the exposure, i took PEP for two days and quit taking the medicine because the doctor here in Thailand told me not to take them as it can cause a lot of negative side-effect. Does taking medicine have any affect on my Viral DNA PCR test?

thank you

[Ann]

AB,

I agree with your doctor that you should not have taken PEP. It is not recommended in your situation.

Two days of PEP will have no effect on your PCR test. You should NOT have been given a DNA PCR test. They are NOT approved for diagnostic purposes as they return a high rate of FALSE positive results.  The correct test would have been and RNA PCR - these ARE approved for diagnostics.

The earliest you should test - with an ANTIBODY TEST - is at six weeks, as the vast majority of people who have actually been infected will seroconvert and test positive by this time, with the average time to seroconversion being only 22 days. A negative result at six weeks must be confirmed at the three month point, but is highly unlikely to change.

With the negative results you have had so far, I fully expect you to ultimately test negative. The false positive antibody tests you had sometimes happen, but they've been proven to be FALSE positives by the subsequent testing.

For the record, as hiv is MUCH more difficult to transmit from a woman to a man, I expect you to continue test negative. You're not even sure if you actually had unprotected intercourse. If the condom had broken, the woman you were with would most likely have said something. You have to remember that they use condoms to protect their OWN health and livelihoods, not yours.

Ann