testing/

[pepper1011]

I have been taking Restasis regularly for 2 months now for dry eye treatment. I usually put two drops in my eye at a time instead of just 1. It says it has "Cyclosporine Opthalmic Emulsion .05%. I have taken two Oraquick home tests and they both came up negative for hiv. Would the Cyclosporine be able to cause a false negative?

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Welcome to the forum.  Thanks for your question.

For sure your cyclosporin eyedrops had no effect on your test result.  You can rely on the engative results.

In theory, immunosuppressive drugs might delay positive HIV test results.  However, I stress "in theory":  there are no reports that it actually happens.  And if it does, it would require far higher doses than the amount absorbed into the system from eyedroops.  Even the large doses (by mouth) used for certain auto-immune diseases or to prevent organ rejection (e.g. after a kidney transplant) probably would have no effect.

Best wishes and happy holidays--  HHH, MD

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

You don't say enough about either your sexual history orthe nature of the skin rash for me to judge whether you might in fact have syphilis. But if you do, it wouldn't have any effect on your HIV test results.

[pepper1011]

Thank you. Would advanced syphilis cause a false negative in an oraquick at home test? I recently had one of the breakouts checked out and the dr. said it looked like some other sort of skin rash and not syphilis. They took a blood test to check for all std's just incase and should be hearing back soon. This is just to ease my mind.