POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: jpsw9200 on February 07, 2007, 07:34:05 pm
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I started dating someone new after I ended a relationship of 3 years, so we went to get tested together. I had a few months of singlehood, but nothing too crazy. I was not concerned going into the test because a month previous I was fine, and my sexual activity since being single was limited.
August 26 Last unprotected sex w/ boyfriend, while breaking up I should mention.
Oct. 31st Last protected sex with boy from bar.
Oct 20th I tested Neg on ELISA.
Dec. 24th ELISA Postive, next day Clinic repeated standard retest of same sample. first came back Neg. and third Ind. Confused? Me too! How can you get one of each from the same sample?
Sent a Second sample for WB. Test came back indeterminate, showing only (+/-) on p24 ALL OTHER BANDS NEG.
HIV Clinic, Doc with 14 years of this behind him says without being able to call me Neg, that I was Neg. That we had nothing to worry about. I was the 3% a year with a false positive, and was sorry I had to go through the worry. Actually I'm grateful in a lot of ways.
Jan 24th WB Retest. My Doc did not repeat ELISA. WB came back indeterminate show P24 +, and gp40 (+/-) All other band clearly Neg.l
I have no idea what to think. I called back the HIV Clinic, and they thought I was still fine and had nothing to worry about. They offered to retest me via ELISA if that would ease my mind. My Doc is not gay friendly, and doesn't deal with this often, so she is not so convinced. Can anyone give me there knowledgeable input here, and some advice?
thanks much,
Jack
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Your doctor is correct. You are HIV negative.
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You are HIV negative. The tests support that conclusion. I cannot tell you exactly why your 2nd ELISA yielded conflicting results, but it could be some sort of lab error with the assay, pre or post analytical variable--maybe the sample was contaminated somehow, I don't know. A repeat test of the ELISA on a new sample should have been done.
Your Western Blot test was indeterminate--it isn't always known why negative people might have any type of reaction. There can be cross reacting antibodies, other health conditions, or just unknown causes. Interestingly enough, many of these people have false reactions to p24. If the p24 was truely there because of early seroconversion, your western blot would have become a true positive, not stayed the same.
I agree with your doctor that you are HIV negative. Even if she truely doesn't like gay people, I don't think she would purposely misleed you on this. If you want to test again, do so for peace of mind, but you are HIV negative.
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You are negative. Fours months after your last unprotected incident and the Western Blot would have returned a reactive result if you were not negative. A reactive P24 band can be found in almost 15% of the negative population for reasons not entirely understood.
You scooted by this time so hopefully this brush will remind you if the temptation to not use a condom comes up again.
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JP,
I agree with the others - you're hiv negative.
If you want to have another ELISA (not Western Blot!) to put your mind at rest, then go ahead. I fully expect it to return negative this time. It's not all that uncommon for a person to have a false positive result and that is why they use a WB to confirm. However, as has been mentioned, the WB results you describe are considered negative results. You have to have a certain amount of bands return positive and you haven't. Repeatedly, you haven't.
Ann
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I agree with Ann.
Also, you're entitled to have a good doctor whom you are comfortable working with and with whom you can talk openly.
You might say something to your doctor about the feelings you have had. If you can't get it straightened out to your satisfaction then I would suggest you look for a new one. Your doctor should be a good partner in working to keep you well.
Cheers,
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Thanks...I really needed to hear this. I am going for my final test tmrw. I am going to request they start with the ELISA first.
2 weeks ago I got a bad case of eypidimudus, I then took cipro to get rid of it. This was not caused by an STD, but rather just bacteria. My body has never done well with any sort of bacteria infection since I came down with cryptosporidium in college. I’m now 27. i think the cirpro ignited an infection in my colon, and I have felt horrible. When I went to the ER for this, I got this old man Doc, who said, "oh I see that you have a partner". Have you had an HIV test?” I wanted to punch him, because I think he was instantly blinded by that fact of being gay and linking it to HIV. I don’t think he got past me story about the HIV test months ago to think of any other solutions.
Anyway...I continue to believe everything is fine along the lines of HIV, but I am worried that I have some strange Auto Immune Disease. Because it just seem when I get sick, I get really sick, sore and very cranky. I'm going to push my Doc for the final ELISA test, and to look more closely at the possibilities of Auto Immune Disease.
It seems unlikly that I would seroconvert at 5 months and have smptoms now. plus, going back to the fact that from what I understand, a western blot that is turning postiive doesn't show p24 and gp40 one month, and then proceed to show other bands at a later date. What I was told by the HIV clinic is that when convertering, you have many bands showing at once.
thanks again!
jack
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jp,
Auto-immune disease is an avenue well worth pursuing as it is one of the conditions that can cause false positive results. Good luck in finding out what's going on and don't be afraid to look into changing doctors.
Ann