POZ Community Forums

HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: canadiandude on July 15, 2006, 10:07:39 pm

Title: Hiv Blood exposure
Post by: canadiandude on July 15, 2006, 10:07:39 pm
Hey I'm new to this forum and think its great what your doing for the so many worried people out there. But I have a situation of my own.

A couple months ago or so i had an exposure to blood with someone who suspects he is hiv positive. We were smoking out of a marijuana pipe and my lips were very chapped and split on the inside pretty badly and open. While after we were done i had noticed that his lip was bleeding.

Now heres where the panic sets in. 4 days later i comedown with a very faint rash that comes and goes. I wasnt to worried and i would normaly rather my skin with a vitamin e cream to make it feel better. While about a bit longer then a week later id start getting a little itchy bump hear and there and before you know it there was quite the noticable rash made up of them. Now ive seen pictures of the acute hiv rash and mine looked alot like it.

Since then ive had quite a few symptoms such as eye floaters, tingling of the hands and feet every now and then, weight loss etc. So i'm pretty freaked out. Me and my girlfreind have been non active in the sex area. But my question isssss, is it true that you can get such a similiar rash, one that looks so much like an ars rash but be something else?? Because i took an antibody test at 7 weeks and about 14-15 weeks and both are negative.

My girlferind now wants to indulge in sexual activity but theres a part of me still worried that im a late seroconverter... I know the tests are encouraging but i cant get past the rash. I mean it looks just like the ars rash.

What are your thoughts on this tricky situation??

Title: Re: Hiv Blood exposure
Post by: canadiandude on July 15, 2006, 10:09:39 pm
oops quite a few spelling errors there. I meant to say "Lather" and "Looked" sorry for the confusiom :-[
Title: Re: Hiv Blood exposure
Post by: Sae on July 15, 2006, 11:23:22 pm
CD,
HIV is not transmitted in the way you describe and (because we know you'll ask) even with your circumstances of chapped/bleeding lip.

Saliva inhibits HIV is one reason, but I assure you there are other reasons why the scenario is not a vector for HIV transmission.

If that doesn't make you feel better, your tests at post 12 weeks in Canada are conclusive.

You couldn't get HIV from what you did, plus you were tested and don't have it.  Good for you on getting an HIV test.  Hopefully you are your girlfriend are tested for STD's (all of them), securely monogamous OR just use condoms for vaginal/anal sex and you will remain HIV negative.

You are fine.
Sae.
Title: Re: Hiv Blood exposure
Post by: Morgan on July 16, 2006, 12:29:41 am
Canadiandude,

A no-risk exposure coupled with conclusive negative testing.

You are hiv negative.   :)

Morgan
Title: Re: Hiv Blood exposure
Post by: Ann on July 16, 2006, 05:52:33 am
Quote
My girlferind now wants to indulge in sexual activity...

dude,

You need to be using condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, every time, no exceptions until such time as you are in a securely monogamous relationship where you have both tested for ALL STIs together. To agree to have unprotected intercourse is to consent to the possibility of being infected with a sexually transmitted infection.

Unless your girlfriend has also been tested, you need to use condoms. You can't tell by looking at someone, or go by what you think you know about them, or what they might ASSUME the the state of their sexual health to be. The only way to know is through testing.

You know your own status and that's it. You weren't at risk in the pipe smoking incident and you have the conclusive negative test result to prove that.

Use condoms for intercourse and you will avoid hiv infection. It really is that simple. Read through the condom and lube links in my signature line so you can use those condoms with confidence. And while you're here, please also read through the Welcome Thread (http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=220.0) and follow the links for further information.

One more thing... you said your friend suspects he is hiv positive. Please encourage him to get tested. The sooner hiv infection is caught, the better the long-term outcome will be. Hiv is nothing to guess about - it's a serious, life-threatening illness. Get him to test. He might well be worrying over nothing anyway.

Ann
Title: Re: Hiv Blood exposure
Post by: canadiandude on July 16, 2006, 04:27:25 pm
Hey guys, thanks for such prompt replys its apreciated greatly! ;D But anywho why is the situation so far fetched?? if someone with hiv who say has contracted it a month or 2 before the incident gets blood on the pipe with cuts on my lips wouldnt it be a very good chance of getting it?? Now i know the test is a good indication but the rash i came down with 4 days later looks exactly like the one of an acute hiv rash :'( the rash just freaks me out. But yeah i know that you should always wear protection no matter what, its just my doc tells me those things arent always fools proof.
Title: Re: Hiv Blood exposure
Post by: Morgan on July 16, 2006, 04:48:29 pm
Now i know the test is a good indication but the rash i came down with 4 days later looks exactly like the one of an acute hiv rash

First, the test isn't just a good indication..... it's a conclusive result that shows you have not been infected.

Second, symptoms, like that rash, wouldn't appear so soon, so whatever iit is, it isn't related to hiv.

Getting hiv is not like catching a cold.  It is fragile and does not easily infect, especially outside of the body.

Any blood on the pipe would very quickly degrade and lose any ability to infect.

Morgan
Title: Re: Hiv Blood exposure
Post by: canadiandude on July 17, 2006, 08:54:10 pm
Well the window period confuses me, because my doctor said 6 months is standard... and ive even read on the internet theres been many cases that take longer then that!! ??? So 3 months might not be concrete.

And heres a picture of an acute hiv rash that looked exactly like mine
http://dermis.multimedica.de/dermisroot/en/11096/image.htm

Now under these circumstances of the rash turning to just about exactly like that 2 weeks after i thought i contracted it wouldnt it change your mind and make you think maybe the 3 and a half month test wasnt concrete???

Please help me guys, this site is like a godsend but ive been really upset and any of your information and opinions would be sure to help whether its good or bad, i just need it straight.
Title: Re: Hiv Blood exposure
Post by: jkinatl2 on July 17, 2006, 09:10:02 pm
<< So 3 months might not be concrete.>>

It is unless you are on immunosupressive therapy, e.g. chemotherapy for cancer or drugs taken after an organ transplant.


Title: Re: Hiv Blood exposure
Post by: canadiandude on July 17, 2006, 09:13:54 pm
Yes but i had that exact same rash! Ive searched the internet far and wide to see if i could find similar rashes, and the only one that matches up is the ARS rash.
Title: Re: Hiv Blood exposure
Post by: Sae on July 17, 2006, 10:32:05 pm
Dude,

You would believe something as variable as a rash over an actual real HiV test result?  Are you being logical?
So you are a dermatologist now too?

Many people who are HIV positive NEVER had a rash.  The rash happens for some not for others, many MORE people who are negative have what they think is an ARS rash.

You know what your rash is?  A rash.  You've added an NON-SPECIFIC symptom as proof of your theory.  Symptoms mean nothing already, and a rash, even less.

You are HIV negative, time to start accepting that and moving on with your life.  Seriously.  Try to wrap your head around this fact:  the rash is beyond inconsequential.  Your test results...that's reality.
Title: Re: Hiv Blood exposure
Post by: canadiandude on July 20, 2006, 01:05:12 am
Thank you for all the replys guys, it means alot to me... But you see the rash was not just some strange rash that just came and went. For about a week and a half it was just a very faint red sunburn like rash that came and went. And it slowly broke into an itchy bump here and there before you know it it looked like i had scabies on my chest and neck. The first doctor i saw even thought it was that. But i then went to another doctor and he thought it was some sort of skin infection, but if it was a skin infection it wouldnt start with hives and just come and go like it did :(
Title: Re: Hiv Blood exposure
Post by: Ann on July 20, 2006, 07:22:49 am
Canada,

You have conclusively tested negative for hiv. You do NOT have hiv.

The ARS rash does NOT itch. Your rash could not possibly be related to ARS as you have conclusively tested negative for hiv.

And please, keep all your additional thoughts or questions in this thread. You asked a question in another person's thread, which is thread hijacking and not permitted here.

Ann
Title: Re: Hiv Blood exposure
Post by: canadiandude on July 20, 2006, 06:26:41 pm
I'm sorry ann, I guess i should have familiarized myself with this forum a little bit more :-[ But anywho i'll ask my question here, how come the window period isnt the same for someone whos an IV drug user??
Title: Re: Hiv Blood exposure
Post by: jkinatl2 on July 20, 2006, 06:40:34 pm
CanadianDude:

a chronic IV drug user, it is theorized, will gradually suppress their immune systems to the point where they are constantly sick. Their bodies, it is theorized, no longer produce antibodies for new pathogens.

I use the term "theorized" because this theory is based on a handful of patients who were known chronic IV drug users and who self-reported no unprotected sexual or IV drug needle sharing activity in their extended window period. These reports are, I believe over ten years old. Given the notirious unreliability of patient report, especially a patient who is emotionally and intellectually compromised by ongoing heroin use, and given the advance in HIV testing since these caveats were put in place, I submit that they are an exceedingly conservsative use of obsolete information.

slightly more quantifiable are the extended window periods for those undergoing chemotherapy for cancer (which destroys blood cells) and those on immunosuppressive therapy after undergoing an organ transplant. And even then, modern generations of HIv testing are a combination of tests, so HIV would likely be detected there as well, within the three month window.

However, I feel compelled to repeat the salient point of the thread: Namely, you did not have a risk for HIV infection.