Symptoms and production of antibodies.....

[mjacobs1973]

I saw in the Expert Forum a statment by Dr. HHH.....it said, in quotes..... " Further, HIV blood test results are always more reliable than symptoms, and your negative test at 8 weeks is highly reassuring; 98-99% of newly infected people have positive tests by then.  Equally important, the test always become positive pretty soon after onset of symptoms; if your symptoms were due to HIV, your 8 week test would have been positive.".........

That statement kind of confused me.  Does that mean having no symptoms means that you will take longer to test positive?  I didn't think that to be true, but now I am wondering.....I thought symptoms didn't mean much.  Maybe I misundertood the statement.  Please advise......

[mjacobs1973]

Okay, now I understand, thank you so much!

[nursegirl6572]

YES, that would be correct!!

[mjacobs1973]

Thank you nursegirl6572......I kind of figured that, because the docs and everyone on here were always saying symptoms are not a good way to tell if one is infected.....then that statement from the doc had me wondering if you had to show symptoms of ARS in order for the antibodies to be produced......so, as far as you are saying, the bottom line is....being infected by HIV PERIOD  would cause you to produce antibodies, not the showing of any symptoms.  Would that be a correct statement?  Thank you so much.

[nursegirl6572]

No, that's not what it means.  It means that a newly infected person will test POS quite rapdily...most by 6-8 weeks.  The CDC recommends testing to 3 months for a conclusive result (the window period).  Symptoms are in NO way a reliable way to judge risk, or infection.  A great majority of people who become infected never even have symptoms, and people who think they ARE experiencing ARS symptoms usually are not.

  There was a study done.....people who presented to the ER thinking they were suffering from ARS.....in 99% of the cases, the person tested HIV Negative and their "symptoms" were in fact related to something totally different (garden-variety virus/illness).

Therefore, the correlation of "symptoms" and testing is not relaible.  If a person has a risk, they need to test...and regardless of the presence, or absence of ARS-like symptoms, their test results will be conclusive by 3 months, with most people testing POS way before then.