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HIV Prevention (Expert Forum)
Symptoms From a 1988 exposure
Answered by
University of Washington
Seattle - WA
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No questions will be accepted on the treatment of HIV/AIDS or its complications, viral load, and similar topics. If you have questions about a specific STD other than HIV/AIDS, please visit the STD Forum. Questions that do not pertain to the above topics will be removed from the forum.
If you have not done so, please review other threads in our archives for questions similar to yours and Dr. Handsfield's replies. Questions that duplicate other frequent ones, for which abundant replies exist, and that have little educational value for other forum users, will be DELETED WITHOUT RESPONSE. YOUR PAYMENT WILL NOT BE REFUNDED. The most common examples of such questions are those about low risk exposures to HIV, such as oral sex, condom- protected intercourse hand-to-genital exposure, and nonsexual contact with possibly infected blood or body fluids as well as symptoms of early HIV infection.
Symptoms From a 1988 exposure
by ObessiveOne, Nov 08, 2006 12:00AM
Doctor,
This is a different exposure scenario than my previous post.
In 1988 I had unprotected vaginal sex with a older woman. She was menstrating at the time. One month after the encounter I got an UTI, five months later I started having strange symptoms such as rash, low fever (99), and difficulty swallowing.
She told be she was "clean" and was HIV negative. After I told her about the UTI she was alarmed. I asked her to re-tested, at which point she asked me to stop contacting/harassing her.(By the way, I believe she is still alive-she has a web-site for her business).
As the fever lingered I went through a succesion of doctors and AIDS tests to determine my status. The initial doctor said it was an "adverse" reaction to tetracycline-out to one year all the antibody tests were negative.
As time went on the fever petered out. During the period 1993-2006, I was tested by the ELISA antibody test at least 20 times for purposes of blood donations, life insurance, and adoption. I relied on the test. In 2005 the ELISA included a NAT test. My last anti-body test was July 2006. Maybe reliance was a mistake?
Although I can take some solace in my August 2006 T-cell count of 1160, 55%, I am now experiencing the following symptoms. 16 month bout of diarrhea and chills. In the last two weeks I have had a low grade fever up to 99.1 (I'm usually cooler), hot flashes, and a nose infection which is being treated with Bactrim.
My questions:
(1) Do you still believe that the modern ELISA test will not give a false negative in this situation? What other testing should be pursued (if any)?
(2) Is 18 years a long time post exposure prior to symptomatic HIV infection? My ID doc said this is not possible?
(3) Is the 2005 NAT test a saving grace here-could it be false negative? Or is it meant only to catch early infections?
Thursday I see the ID doc again. My regards and I will await your answer. Thanks
This is a different exposure scenario than my previous post.
In 1988 I had unprotected vaginal sex with a older woman. She was menstrating at the time. One month after the encounter I got an UTI, five months later I started having strange symptoms such as rash, low fever (99), and difficulty swallowing.
She told be she was "clean" and was HIV negative. After I told her about the UTI she was alarmed. I asked her to re-tested, at which point she asked me to stop contacting/harassing her.(By the way, I believe she is still alive-she has a web-site for her business).
As the fever lingered I went through a succesion of doctors and AIDS tests to determine my status. The initial doctor said it was an "adverse" reaction to tetracycline-out to one year all the antibody tests were negative.
As time went on the fever petered out. During the period 1993-2006, I was tested by the ELISA antibody test at least 20 times for purposes of blood donations, life insurance, and adoption. I relied on the test. In 2005 the ELISA included a NAT test. My last anti-body test was July 2006. Maybe reliance was a mistake?
Although I can take some solace in my August 2006 T-cell count of 1160, 55%, I am now experiencing the following symptoms. 16 month bout of diarrhea and chills. In the last two weeks I have had a low grade fever up to 99.1 (I'm usually cooler), hot flashes, and a nose infection which is being treated with Bactrim.
My questions:
(1) Do you still believe that the modern ELISA test will not give a false negative in this situation? What other testing should be pursued (if any)?
(2) Is 18 years a long time post exposure prior to symptomatic HIV infection? My ID doc said this is not possible?
(3) Is the 2005 NAT test a saving grace here-could it be false negative? Or is it meant only to catch early infections?
Thursday I see the ID doc again. My regards and I will await your answer. Thanks
Doctor's Answer
by H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D., Nov 08, 2006 12:00AM
, Nov 08, 2006 12:00AM
Oh, come on now. Your test results prove with absolute certainty you don't have HIV. Anyway, I agree with your ID doct: if you really were infected 18 years ago, you are extremely articulate for a dead man--which is what you would have been by now. If this question is the only reason you are planning to see the ID specialist again, I suggest you save your money, time and energy--and his or hers.
Regards-- HHH, MD
Regards-- HHH, MD
As for your partner's behavior, if she really was alarmed by your UTI, she probably thought you may have given HER a STD. From the tone of your post, I'm also guessing that you may have been rather insistent and quite anxious in your contacts with her, which probably really did constitute harrassment. I'm sure she didn't have HIV, and you don't either.
I do think counseling is in order. You definitely don't need further testing, and anyone who keeps testing you for HIV after all these negative tests (assuming you've had no other risks) must be behaving unethically. You might, however, want to talk with your doctor about your anxiety around HIV, and about possibly starting meds to help you as you begin to work through this in therapy.