Angular cheilitis is not usually a sign of immune deficiency. I see no reason for concern.
Follow up: I know my negative HIV test was conclusive for the exposure I was worried about, but since the test I keep getting recurrent angular cheilitis and continually read that it is a symptom of HIV or a compromised immune system. Should I be worried about other immune system problems of non-infectious origin, or is angular cheilitis a common enough occurrence in healthy people that I shouldn't be concerned? Thanks again!
Hi Doctor Handsfield,
After hearing your advice and doing a lot of soul searching, I took the plunge and got an HIV test. It was negative, as you predicted. I feel like a million pound weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Thanks so much for helping people like myself out. Your advice is very much appreciated.
Makes no difference in my response.
I should add that I've never used condoms, and I've had a lymph node in my neck that never completely subsided after tonsillitis when I was 16. I also have accumulations of white debris along the sides of my tongue (but the doctor said it's just that - debris). Thanks again.
My first response is after your opening sentence, before I read anything else: If 'a few doctors' have judged your risk to be low, undoubtedly it is.
Now to the rest of your question: And again after reading the next sentence: The chance a woman with only 2 lifetime sex partners has acquired HIV is just about zero, unless one of the partners is known high risk (bisexual, injection drug user, etc)--regardless of whether those guys had other partners, past STDs, etc. Heterosexually transmitted HIV in women is almost entirely limited to the regular, long-term partners of HIV infected men, like the wives of injection drug users.
And reading on: Shingles, HPV infection, and abnormal pap smears are not indications of increased HIV risk; and psoriasis is not known to be a risk. Finally, you provide no evidence whatever that either of your life sex partners might have HIV.
Of course I cannot guarantee that any particular person isn't infected. But if I were a gambling man, I would be happy to bet my house at the roulette table that you do not have HIV. But the real question is why you are stewing about it instead of just getting tested. Since you're worried, why speculate? Have an HIV test. You need the negative result to calm your anxieties.
Best wishes-- HHH, MD