POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: moonos21 on January 08, 2008, 02:02:44 am
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Hi everyone,
I live in Japan. About three months ago while very drunk and on holiday in Thailand I had about 90 seconds of non protective anal sex with a prostitute. I came down with a cold/sore throat after about 5 days which persisted for about two weeks. The sore throat still persists today, but I smoke alot. No fever, swollen lymphnodes, rash. This cold could have been related to my flight home where I spent 5 hours freezing cold at Taiwan Airport and 2 hours freezing on the plane back to japan as they had no more blankets!
I tested for HIV after 12 weeks and received a positive result. Just got the HIV 1 Western Blot test back yesterday and it was negative. The doctor said to not get too excited and has now done a HIV 2 Western Blot test. He said my chances are probably fifty/fifty. I then mentioned to him that I've had a false positive test in the past, but in between have had 3 negative tests. He also gave me my CD4 count which was only 329! I mentioned that this was very low and he said that it's still within the healthy range.
What are my chances of having HIV2? Someone posted here that HIV 2 would almost always show up as intederminate on a HIV1 Western Blot test. Is this correct?
Please help.
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HIV2 is found predominantly in Western Africa.
The rule of thumb is ELISA positive + Western Blot negative == HIV negative.
MtD
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HIV2 is found predominantly in Western Africa.
The rule of thumb is ELISA positive + Western Blot negative == HIV negative.
MtD
Thanks for your reply Matty. I know that HIV is quite rare outside Western Africa, I'm just wondering about the Western Blot results. It was soley a test for HIV 1 so does that mean it would still pick up some appearance of HIV 2? From reading on the web, most Western Blot tests, look for both 1 and 2, but this is Japan and they like to do things differently.
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A Western Blot test at the time line would pick up both, HIV1 and HIV2.
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A Western Blot test at the time line would pick up both, HIV1 and HIV2.
Even though the WB was only looking for HIV 1? How is that possible? Sorry for being such a nuisance. Just obviously worried.
Thanks
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Western Blot tests for HIV1 first then HIV2 secondary. The same goes for HIV2 Western Blot, it tests for HIV2 first and HIV1 secondary.
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Western Blot tests for HIV1 first then HIV2 secondary. The same goes for HIV2 Western Blot, it tests for HIV2 first and HIV1 secondary.
Cheers, makes me feel better, or it could be the beer! Why would my Doc recommend another WB though?, although when I first tested positive, he did email me a link to hivmedicine.com and told me that if I read that I'd know more about the disease than him!
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Thanks for your replies. I'm just worried about the low CD4 count? Seems awfully low?
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Just got the result of my HIV 2 Western Blot and it was negative.
Thanks for your replies here. Although it made me feel better I couldn't rest until I got that negative result. I definitely won't be questioning my status. All these people posting on here with stories like, "I got a handjob 7 years ago and have tested negative 30 times, but I'm still not convinced" should seriously get some counselling!
Good luck to everyone who has tested poz!
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I'm glad to hear you've received a conclusive result.
MtD
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I'm glad to hear you've received a conclusive result.
MtD
Cheers!