can I stop testing

[salahito]

Dear Drs
Good day. Thank you for doing a great Job.
Let me start by being honest with you, I do have OCD from HIV.
I have sustained a hollow bore nedle stick injury while aspirating from a patient. I of course did the usual of cleaning my finger with alcohol, expressing blood etc.. The patient is a nepali house worker. She appeared healthy and at the end appeared to have a benign breast tumour( the result of the aspirate). Blood was drawn from both of us for HIV 1 and 2 (By Elisa), Hep C and Hep B and we were both negative. So I left the incident behind me. 24 days later I was a bit worried (what if she was in her window period) so I said why dont I do a PCR and Elisa for HIV (for me that is) and it was negative.
About 6 weeks later I continued to be worried so I did a 4th generation Como and I was negative.
My question to you do you think I need testing at 3 months, 6 months or what I have done is enough to asertain that I am not infected and I can move on.

Kind Regards
Salahito

[salahito]

Thanks a lot Dr HHH. God Bless

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

No.  The HIV antibody tests are resistant to such temperature variations.  A large proportion of their use worldwide is in settings of extreme temperature, both tropical and arctic, and the tests were specically designed to not be affected when refrigeration or warming equipment were not available.

[salahito]

Thank you very much for your reply And for your encouraging comments
I have a follow up and i do not know if it is my ocd kicking in or it is a legitamate question but i do hope you will take the time to answer it.
When we drew blood from the "index" case to do elisa for hiv, i took the tubes my self to the testing centre in kuwait to speed things up and get an answer due to my OCD. It was in my car for about 40 minutes where the temperature was a bit hot, probably around 30 degree centigrade and then i gave it for testing. So the test was done probably 4 hours after her blood was draw and 40 mins of this was in my car.
Do you think the " car time" would have ruined the blood ?
Thanks a lot
Regards

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

I scanned your several previous threads and posts on this and the HIV communty forum.  As Dr. Hook has told you (in response to two different questions) you clearly are abnormally obsessed with HIV risks.

Having said that, of course a sharp instrument injury in a medical setting could carry some risk.  But a negative 4th generation HIV test (i.e. combo test for both HIV antibody and p24 antigen) is 100% reliable any time 4 weeks or more after exposure.  Your test result proves unequivocally that you did not acquire HIV from the needlestick event described.  And anyway, you also know that the patient didn't have HIV, so I'm not sure why you felt a need to be tested once that result was known (except for your admitted OCD, of course).

From a medical or risk assessment perspective, you don't need further testing, despite official advice for testing at 3 months.  (Six months is for sure not necessary. Anyone who recommends it is not up to speed on modern HIV testing.)  For more information about this, see the thread linked below.

Let's not have any "yes but" or "what if" questions.  Nervous people in general, and those with OCD in particular, usually find themselves thinking about exceptions to the rule.  But trust me on this:  there are NO scenarios that can your anxious mind can construct that would change my opinion or advice, so there is no point in asking.  You don't have HIV, and that's that.

Here is the thread about test reliability at various times after exposure:

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/1704700

Regards--  HHH, MD