HIV DUO accuracy in Lyme people

[jack190]

Hello doctor,

following up my previous message, I have now received a confirmation of Lyme diagnosis.

Since my immune system resulted suppressed in some tests, I had an HIV DUO a few days ago, that was negative.
My last low-risk sex activity was one year ago.

My question is: can my suppressed immune system cause an hiv DUO false negative result? (Note: I have not started the antibiotics for lyme yet)

The concerning results were: CD8-CD 57+  "LOW" (59  range 60-360); from another lab: CD57+ NK "LOW" (93  range 100-360)

My lyme results were: Borrelia Elispot LTT "POSITIVE" both the Fully Antigen and Peptide Mix, also "positive" for Chlamydia pneumoniae by Elispot LTT.
From another lab all the normal lyme antibody tests came back negative a part for a positive for the 41 kDa band on Western Blot IgM.

My lyme doctor said the other antibody results might be negative due to borrelia that suppresses my immune system.

So I was wondering if the hiv DUO I had was enough to rule out that infection or I should have a PCR RNA test as well?
Or should I simply forget about the possibility of a false negative?

Note: I also have an infection in my root canal which might affects some of the results.

Thanks. Regards

[jack190]

Thank you Doctor, your answer was very reassuring.

Regards

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

This question could have been asked as a follow-up in the other thread, without a new posting fee.

There are no medical conditions that have any known effect on the reliability of HIV testing.  There are theoretical concerns about very advanced, life-threatening conditions, such as septic shock, terminal cancer, and potent cancer chemotherapy -- but I stress theoretical; there are few if any actual reported cases that even these made HIV testing unreliable.  Certainly Lyme disease cannot do so, nor does a dental infection.  Your HIV test results are 100% reliable and prove you don't have HIV; neither PCR nor any other HIV testing is needed.

HHH, MD