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About HIV testing
Dear Dr.
First of all, thank you for helping people with your knowledge. Here is my story and questions.
The story:
I was kinda drunk in jamaica and if i dont remember wrong it was a vaginal exposure in jamaica to a CSW for probably a minute or 2, ( due to condom broke ) I got very anxious. It also could be anal exposure but i am not sure. Same day i had burning feeling in penis and next day i had pain at the tip of my penis. the pain lasted for 2 weeks. 2 weeks after I had all the symptoms including night sweats, depression ( stiff feeling of neck and head, high blood pressure, fatigue and irritated looking skin (red parts) on my hand. I had diarrhea , cough, swollen lymph nodes and others. The only symptom i didn't have was the fever. I used antibiotics 1000mg's.
The good news is that I got my hiv (ELISA) test *non reactive* results at 3rd weeks and 6th week and finally 89th day.
I also get tested for clymadhia and gonorhea only 48 hours after and they were also negative.
Questions:
1) I really want to be sure that 48 hour is enough to get urine tested for clymadhia and gonorhea. Otherwise I will get tested again now.
2) How credible are the HIV test centers in united states? Should I trust them? How can I make sure that the non reactive they got is right.
3) Do you think 89 day is 100% accurate although i had those symptoms.
4) its almost 6 month after the exposure. Some websites show the window period as 6 month so just for peace of mind i am planning to get tested again. In this website you say 6 weeks is a good indicator and 3 month is proof.
According to which statistics you are telling this information. and my result is not 3 month, its 89th day so do you think it is also enough for my situation ?
Again, Thank you so much for your help,
First of all, thank you for helping people with your knowledge. Here is my story and questions.
The story:
I was kinda drunk in jamaica and if i dont remember wrong it was a vaginal exposure in jamaica to a CSW for probably a minute or 2, ( due to condom broke ) I got very anxious. It also could be anal exposure but i am not sure. Same day i had burning feeling in penis and next day i had pain at the tip of my penis. the pain lasted for 2 weeks. 2 weeks after I had all the symptoms including night sweats, depression ( stiff feeling of neck and head, high blood pressure, fatigue and irritated looking skin (red parts) on my hand. I had diarrhea , cough, swollen lymph nodes and others. The only symptom i didn't have was the fever. I used antibiotics 1000mg's.
The good news is that I got my hiv (ELISA) test *non reactive* results at 3rd weeks and 6th week and finally 89th day.
I also get tested for clymadhia and gonorhea only 48 hours after and they were also negative.
Questions:
1) I really want to be sure that 48 hour is enough to get urine tested for clymadhia and gonorhea. Otherwise I will get tested again now.
2) How credible are the HIV test centers in united states? Should I trust them? How can I make sure that the non reactive they got is right.
3) Do you think 89 day is 100% accurate although i had those symptoms.
4) its almost 6 month after the exposure. Some websites show the window period as 6 month so just for peace of mind i am planning to get tested again. In this website you say 6 weeks is a good indicator and 3 month is proof.
According to which statistics you are telling this information. and my result is not 3 month, its 89th day so do you think it is also enough for my situation ?
Again, Thank you so much for your help,
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Your tests prove you cannot possibly have any of those infections. Your doctor is correct in her advice about testing.
IT, just read the forum. You can use the search link and enter "window period" or "seroconversion" and finds hundreds of discussions. I suggest you not waste the posting fee a new thread on this question; the reply will be no different than you can find in many other discussions.
IT, just read the forum. You can use the search link and enter "window period" or "seroconversion" and finds hundreds of discussions. I suggest you not waste the posting fee a new thread on this question; the reply will be no different than you can find in many other discussions.
Thank you for the information Dr. If you don't mind I have 2 final question.
1) 5 months 12 days later I got another negative for Anti Hiv 1&2 Antikor and p24 Antigen test. On the paper it says Negative but it also says ( 0,18 S/CO ). What does that mean , is it normal to get that value ?
2) All other tests were negative including chlamydia , hepatits and syphilis. However on the urinary analysis dr. said my Lokosit is 3-5 and told me to get UTI test. I said I already got that 4 months ago. She said then i dont need it. Do you think i should get checked for 3-5 lokosit level. ? Is it something important ?
Thank you
1) 5 months 12 days later I got another negative for Anti Hiv 1&2 Antikor and p24 Antigen test. On the paper it says Negative but it also says ( 0,18 S/CO ). What does that mean , is it normal to get that value ?
2) All other tests were negative including chlamydia , hepatits and syphilis. However on the urinary analysis dr. said my Lokosit is 3-5 and told me to get UTI test. I said I already got that 4 months ago. She said then i dont need it. Do you think i should get checked for 3-5 lokosit level. ? Is it something important ?
Thank you
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Welcome to the HIV forum. I'll try to help.
A central point we have made innumerable times: As long as standard HIV antibody tests are done long enough after exposure (just about always by 6-8 weeks), the results always outweigh symptoms in judging whether or not someone is infected. In this case, what symptoms you had don't matter; whether your CSW partner had HIV or not doesn't matter; how risky the exposure was doesn't matter. Your negative HIV tests at 6 weeks and 3 months prove you were not infected. Period, no exceptions.
To the specific questions:
1) Two days (48 hours) is fine for gonorrhea but may have been a little early for chlamydia. This hasn't been studied carefully, but many experts feel that chlamydia may be missed in people tested under 4-5 days after exposure.
2) You can trust the test results in standard HIV testing centers, pretty much anywhere in the world and certainly in the US and other industrialized countries.
3) Yes; see above. There is no realistic possibility that results have different reliability at 89 versus 90 days; that's a major hair-split.
4) Hyper-conservative sources sometimes recommend waiting 6 months for reliable testing. They are in the small minority and most experts disagree, as I do.
Bottom line: You had a relatively low risk exposure, since even if your partner had HIV, the chance of transmission was under 1 in 2,000. Combining that with the reliability of testing at 89 days, you can be absolutely certain you didn't catch HIV. But if my information about chlamydia testing makes you nervous, you could be re-tested for that.
Best wishes-- HHH, MD
A central point we have made innumerable times: As long as standard HIV antibody tests are done long enough after exposure (just about always by 6-8 weeks), the results always outweigh symptoms in judging whether or not someone is infected. In this case, what symptoms you had don't matter; whether your CSW partner had HIV or not doesn't matter; how risky the exposure was doesn't matter. Your negative HIV tests at 6 weeks and 3 months prove you were not infected. Period, no exceptions.
To the specific questions:
1) Two days (48 hours) is fine for gonorrhea but may have been a little early for chlamydia. This hasn't been studied carefully, but many experts feel that chlamydia may be missed in people tested under 4-5 days after exposure.
2) You can trust the test results in standard HIV testing centers, pretty much anywhere in the world and certainly in the US and other industrialized countries.
3) Yes; see above. There is no realistic possibility that results have different reliability at 89 versus 90 days; that's a major hair-split.
4) Hyper-conservative sources sometimes recommend waiting 6 months for reliable testing. They are in the small minority and most experts disagree, as I do.
Bottom line: You had a relatively low risk exposure, since even if your partner had HIV, the chance of transmission was under 1 in 2,000. Combining that with the reliability of testing at 89 days, you can be absolutely certain you didn't catch HIV. But if my information about chlamydia testing makes you nervous, you could be re-tested for that.
Best wishes-- HHH, MD
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