Late onset of ARS Symptoms

[Gologo]

Hi there,

I have a flu like illness that is lasting for 4-5 days now. Really tired.

I had a risky exposure 8 weeks ago. Could this be ARS ?

I know it usually starts between 2-4 weeks after the exposure but I have read many HIV+ stories that indicate this would be possible for it to start later. Pretty worried right now.

Thanks

[Gologo]

Can I rule out my symptoms to be ARS related ??

[Gologo]

So it's pretty impossible ?

I'm sorry i'm really worried.

Thank you!

[Vance2335]

No

[Gologo]

Okay I really hope this is true. I think I have a rash on my back nown though the flu has gone away.

Is there any documented case of ARS hitting at 8 weeks ?

[Teak]

No. But symptoms or lack of will not tell you anything about your HIV status.

[Gologo]

yeah but do you think it's still possible to have ars at 8 weeks when the usual timeline is 2-4 weeks?

[Teak]

The only time that one would know that they had went through ARS is by a confirmed positive HIV test and not before.

[Gologo]

Really hope youre right Howard !

Teak, do you consider 8 weeks to be really to late to develop any ars symptom ?

[Teak]

Were are you coming up with those figures? You information is full of fallacies.

[HowardH]

"imagine there's a few copies of the virus circulating throughout the body, "

Not possible. Once antibody has developed, it kills any remaining virus.  Nobody ever gets ARS once a duo test is negative at 4 weeks or more after infection.  In the exceedingly unlikely chance (one in a million or less) that a duo was falsely negative, later seroconversion would not likely be accompanied by ARS symptoms.

You're worrying about an essentially impossible series of events.  Let it go and move on.

[Teak]

The only time that one would know that they had went through ARS is by a confirmed positive HIV test and not before.

[Gologo]

From what I understood, ARS occurs when antibodies start kicking in to fight the infection when the number of copies is high.

Let's imagine there's a few copies of the virus circulating throughout the body, and that it replicates quite slowly. In that case a late ARS shouldn't be possible ?

[Teak]

ARS and seroconverting are not the same thing.

[Gologo]

Thank you very much!

I had a 6 week neg test too.
But Teak suggers its possible to seroconvert after that, as many guidelines say. But if it was possible why wouldn't it be possible to have ARS at 6, 8, 10 weeks ?

Seems there's a contradiction here. Can't find any research on this

[HowardH]

Late onset ARS is an urban myth.  And you had a negative duo test at 28 days, which proves you don't have HIV.