everything fits ARS too perfectly, including CBC

[stefanklm1]

hello,

I (male) am in south america atm and had 2 risk situations with 2 women (18.05.2012 and 23.06.2012), unprotected vaginal and oral intercourse.

on 10.07.2012 I suddenly felt tiredness and fatigue, at night I had light fever.
the next morning I didnt feel better and I also had sore throat and fever of 38° Celsius.
at night the fever rose to 39°, I felt like I wanted to puke and I felt like I was in "delirium". I took 2 halves of a ibuprofen 800 retard pill. I didnt have continuing diarreah, but my stomach was "working" and it produced a lot of "gas". also I felt pressure behind the eyes, which were sensitive to movement.

in the middle of the night the fever was suddenly gone, only the sweating continued and lasted further nights.
the next morning I felt a lot better, no fever but still sore throat which lasted for a couple of more days. I was still k.o. and had developed tinea versicolor "rash" on both upper arms. all the symptoms were gone after a few days except for loss of appetite and a general feeling of being unwell and the night sweats on some nights.

on 12.07.2012, one day after the fever was gone I went to the hospital and got a blood count done. the lymphocytes were at 14,2% K/uL, thrombocytes (platelets) at 155 K/uL and monocytes at 10,5 % but the leukocytes in general were normal.

the next day they took a second blood count and the numbers normalized, except for the lymphocytes, which were at 21 % still too low. the doctor said it was a virus infection but ruled out dengue, which is pretty common in south america.
I havent had a fever in years and am asking myself what else it could be except for ARS. I didnt have a real cough nor a runny nose and only 2 days for a flu is way too short... so obviously i am thinking of ARS (2,5 weeks and 7 weeks after the risk situations).

now I am waiting to take the test...

what do you make of this? can you think of any other viral infection with the same symptoms? I would be glad for any input you guys can give me.

I have a really really bad feeling about this, it all fits ARS too perfectly.

thanks a lot!

[Ann]

Stephan,

We don't want to know about your symptoms or general blood test results. Neither of those things will ever tell you a single thing about your hiv status. ONLY hiv antibody testing at the appropriate time will.

We will not discuss your symptoms with you. If you feel unwell, keep working with a doctor to find out what's going on.

You have had a risk and you do need to test.

The earliest you should test is at six weeks (following your last unprotected incident) 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 six week negative is highly unlikely to change, but must be confirmed at the three month point.

You need to learn from this and stop having unprotected intercourse.

Here's what you need to know in order to avoid hiv infection:

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 sexually transmitted infections together.

To agree to have unprotected intercourse is to consent to the possibility of being infected with an STI. Sex without a condom lasts only a matter of minutes, but hiv is forever.

Have a look through the condom and lube links in my signature line so you can use condoms with confidence.

Anyone who is sexually active should be having a full sexual health care check-up, including but not limited to hiv testing, at least once a year and more often if unprotected intercourse occurs.

If you aren't already having regular, routine check-ups, now is the time to start. As long as you make sure condoms are being used for intercourse, you can fully expect your routine hiv tests to return with negative results.

Don't forget to always get checked for all the other sexually transmitted infections as well, because they are MUCH easier to transmit than hiv. Some of the other STIs can be present with no obvious symptoms, so the only way to know for sure is to test.

Use condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, correctly and consistently, and you will avoid hiv infection. It really is that simple!

Ann