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Acute HIV Infection
Hello, 20 yr old male from Canada.
I met another man and had a sexual experience with and although we never had anal sex he did rub his penis up against my anus for awhile. My rational mind wants to tell me that there should be no reason why I should be concerned about HIV but my degrading health tells me otherwise.
What has happened since then and just before was I was already experiencing a bit of a sore throat so I could have been infected before this but it was very light and at the time I blamed the issue on to much soft drinks. A few days afterward I became rather sick with what seemed like a mild cold (coughing, sneezing, fatigue etc), I felt it was no issue and didn’t go to the clinic about it then after the sickness started to go away I started to cough up blood so I went into my doctor and he prescribed me Amoxicillin for a bacterial infection. I figured the Amoxicillin was working as over a few days the bleeding and amount of general sickness started to wean significantly, then on my last day of treatment I started to get a very violent fever and constant vomiting and I brought myself into emergency. The medical staff at the Hospital did a CT scan and blood test and said my lungs look normal from the CT but that my white blood cell count is high so they decided there was still an infection present in my lungs and that it wasn’t being killed off by the Amoxicillin and put me on Levofloxacin for 10 days, 3 days later I’m feeling better.
first question, what are the realistic chances something like this could really result in an HIV infection?
Second question, does my sickness sound like Acute HIV infection? I should have asked the doctor when I was there in the first place but I’ve doubted myself as paranoid.
3rd and major one is, When is the soonest I can get tested? I’m not sure if the anti-biotic drugs/infection will interfere with the ability to take the test.
Thank you for your time!
I met another man and had a sexual experience with and although we never had anal sex he did rub his penis up against my anus for awhile. My rational mind wants to tell me that there should be no reason why I should be concerned about HIV but my degrading health tells me otherwise.
What has happened since then and just before was I was already experiencing a bit of a sore throat so I could have been infected before this but it was very light and at the time I blamed the issue on to much soft drinks. A few days afterward I became rather sick with what seemed like a mild cold (coughing, sneezing, fatigue etc), I felt it was no issue and didn’t go to the clinic about it then after the sickness started to go away I started to cough up blood so I went into my doctor and he prescribed me Amoxicillin for a bacterial infection. I figured the Amoxicillin was working as over a few days the bleeding and amount of general sickness started to wean significantly, then on my last day of treatment I started to get a very violent fever and constant vomiting and I brought myself into emergency. The medical staff at the Hospital did a CT scan and blood test and said my lungs look normal from the CT but that my white blood cell count is high so they decided there was still an infection present in my lungs and that it wasn’t being killed off by the Amoxicillin and put me on Levofloxacin for 10 days, 3 days later I’m feeling better.
first question, what are the realistic chances something like this could really result in an HIV infection?
Second question, does my sickness sound like Acute HIV infection? I should have asked the doctor when I was there in the first place but I’ve doubted myself as paranoid.
3rd and major one is, When is the soonest I can get tested? I’m not sure if the anti-biotic drugs/infection will interfere with the ability to take the test.
Thank you for your time!
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hello,
I think you can relax about HIV from this episode.
You asked some specific questions:-
" first question, what are the realistic chances something like this could really result in an HIV infection?
I would say no possibility of this resulting in HIV infection. The question arises as to whether there was rubbing or penetration. If there was penetration instead of rubbing and the other guy was HIV positive then there is a risk, clearly. I think though that the risk is zero.
Second question, does my sickness sound like Acute HIV infection? I should have asked the doctor when I was there in the first place but I’ve doubted myself as paranoid.
No. It doesn't. Very high fever, very sore sore throat, drenching night sweats and a whole body rash is indicative of a new HIV infection - TOGETHER with a significant exposure - which you didn't have.
3rd and major one is, When is the soonest I can get tested? I’m not sure if the anti-biotic drugs/infection will interfere with the ability to take the test "
Firstly the meds you've taken will not affect the tests. The soonest you can test in the UK is at 10 days using a NAAT PCR test for HIV. The next test is an HIV DUO which is a 4th generation HIV test and can be done at 28 days. The period after that will be approximately 6 weeks when a modern 3rd generation test such as the INSTI - made in Canada! - will be more than 99% accurate.
As I say, I think you've got yourself in a state about this which is not justified. I understand it - but I think you're ok.
best regards, sean
I think you can relax about HIV from this episode.
You asked some specific questions:-
" first question, what are the realistic chances something like this could really result in an HIV infection?
I would say no possibility of this resulting in HIV infection. The question arises as to whether there was rubbing or penetration. If there was penetration instead of rubbing and the other guy was HIV positive then there is a risk, clearly. I think though that the risk is zero.
Second question, does my sickness sound like Acute HIV infection? I should have asked the doctor when I was there in the first place but I’ve doubted myself as paranoid.
No. It doesn't. Very high fever, very sore sore throat, drenching night sweats and a whole body rash is indicative of a new HIV infection - TOGETHER with a significant exposure - which you didn't have.
3rd and major one is, When is the soonest I can get tested? I’m not sure if the anti-biotic drugs/infection will interfere with the ability to take the test "
Firstly the meds you've taken will not affect the tests. The soonest you can test in the UK is at 10 days using a NAAT PCR test for HIV. The next test is an HIV DUO which is a 4th generation HIV test and can be done at 28 days. The period after that will be approximately 6 weeks when a modern 3rd generation test such as the INSTI - made in Canada! - will be more than 99% accurate.
As I say, I think you've got yourself in a state about this which is not justified. I understand it - but I think you're ok.
best regards, sean
Alright thank you very much for the information, much respect! :)
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