Mono as related to HIV

[paris78]

Thank you in advance for your answers on this...I've found several things on the internet that are contradicting each other and I just want to try to clear this up for my own sanity.  

I had an unprotected encounter with a business contact that I don't know his sexual history, but he's married and I know he's not very monogamous. It was only about 10 minutes and he did not ejaculate. At the time I had not been taking care of myself by not sleeping well or eating well due to stress.

Other than this time, I've been monogamous with the same person for 4 years and had a negative hiv test 4 years ago.

Almost exactly 4 weeks after the encounter I got a sore throat, swolen glands in my neck and a low grade fever up to 100.5.  Went to the doctor and got a negative strep test and a postive monospot test.  My sore throat and swolen glands went away in about a week, but I'm now at 4+ weeks since mono diagnosis and I still have a slight fever every day.

My doctor is running several blood tests for liver function, and three other viruses - EBV, CMV and HIV.

My question is about the HIV.  Does HIV cause mono?  How often is this the case?  I know EBV and CMV can cause mono as well, but I'm really concerned about the HIV.  As most people who have possible exposure and then a test I'm completely freaking out and just want to know what to prepare myself for.  

Can the monospot test return a false positive result due to HIV?  If I do have HIV how will they tell me?  Phone call or will they ask me to come in?  I know that's kind of a silly question.  At 2 months after possible exposure, how accurate will the test be? I hear 3 months is more accurate.  Thank you

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Your positive monospot means you have classical infectious mononucleosis, which is due to Epstein Barr virus (EBV); unless there is a surprising coincidence, you can expect your CMV and HIV tests to be negative.  CMV can cause monospot-negative mono, but most infections are asymptomatic; and almost everybody is infected with CMV some time or another--so a positive CMV test won't mean anything.  The liver function tests are because mono due to either EBV or CMV often causes mild hepatitis, and once in a while a severe case, but that is uncommon.

There is no particular reason to suspect HIV.  The symptoms of acute retroviral syndrome (acute HIV infection), when such symptoms occur, are identical to those of mono/EBV, but mono is very much more common.  It is transmitted primarily though saliva, and onset 2-6 weeks after french-kissing a new partner is very typical.  But you can rely 100% on your negative HIV test (which is certainly what the result will be) when the result returns.  Search the STD forum threads for "time to positive HIV test" for much more detail about this.

Good luck--  HHH, MD

[KC20]

I posted not long ago (post titled "Severe HIV Scare") and my symptoms resembled yours almost identically.  Even my situation, very, very similar.  I've been in a faithful relationship for years, and just recently experienced a single incident of unprotected sex, though lengthier than yours, no ejaculation.  I had (still have) swollen lymph nodes in my neck, which seem to be pretty stable, as they've been there since approximately the 4 week mark (it's now been about 4 months.)  Anyhow, if you're interested in a more thorough description, you can read my post.  Severeral helpful people replied, including Dr. HHH.

[paris78]

Thanks KC20 and Doc - very helpful!