3 weeks of lymph enlargements and still HIV negative

[soft2010]

Dear Doctors
Good day

2 months ago I knew a girl from a different country and  after 2 weeks of known her unfortunately we started to have unprotected sex for so many times and then we separated.

3 weeks ago strangely I started to have noticeable &  Swollen lymph nodes in the postauricular area  ( confirmed by the doctor) some other unnoticeable nodes on my neck which made me uncomfortable in eating the food.

So far I didn’t have any other symptoms.

After 10 weeks of the last exposure I had HIV testing COMBO ab/an which was Negative

1- I want to know more about ARS, does the Lymph enlargements which got now is the start and other symptoms will follow ? or the Lymph enlargements is the last one?

2- I got only lymph enlargements plus my lymphocyte is 31-32-34% over the last month but I didn’t have any symptoms like headeach or temp., if HIV the cause of the lymph enlargement  should I  been tested positive by now ( 3 weeks after the start of the Lymph enlargement) ?

[soft2010]

Thanks a lot Doctor for your quick answer, I'm planning to do full STD check up next week to find out the cause of the Lymph enlargment but I will exclude hiv test based on your advise. thanks once again.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to our Forum.  You may have missed our repeated statements that the symptoms of the ARS are TOTALLY non-specific and when people experience "ARS symptoms" they are much more likely to have something else, usually some other, more typical virus infection.  When this has been studied in the US, less than 1% of persons seeking medical care for "ARS symptoms" are found to have HIV, the remainder having symptoms due to other processes. In contrast, over a given year, there is almost no one who has not had a viral illness, night sweats or both (sometimes on multiple occasions).  In addition, it is also important to realize that many persons who acquire HIV do not experience the ARS.  For a person to try to judge their HIV risk based on "ARS symptoms" is a waste of time.

In your case, isolated lymph node swelling is not a sign of ARS and could be due to some other sort of throat infection, an ear infection, mononucleosis, or lots of other things.  Your negative HIV test is proof that you did not get HIV.  Believe your test results.  Lymph node swelling is non-specific.  If it concerns you, see your doctor for evaluation but do not worry about HIV, your test would have been positive by now.

I hope these comments are helpful.  EWH


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