You do not need a 12 week test, The combination of tests that you had had unquivocably rules out the possibility of HIV. The HIV PCR is more accurate than any p24 antigen test and I know of no expert in the field who has seen anyone take more than 8 weeks to seroconvert unless they have taken antiretroviral therapy as a failed effort at post-exposure prophylaxis. It is (past) time for you to move on.
This will end this reply and thread. No further questins will be accepted until May 2010. EWH
You need to believe your test results. Your experience is a great example of problems which can arise from over testing. You had a false positive antibody test at two weeks. We know it was false positive at that time as the Western blot was negative. Since then your repeated negative antibody and pcr tests prove without a doubt that you did not get HIV from your low risk exposure. It is time for you to put this aside and move on with your life.
As for your symptoms, they are irrelevant. When people experience "ARS symptoms" they are much more likely to have something else, usually some other, more typical virus infection. When this has been studied in the US, less than 1% of persons seeking medical care for "ARS symptoms" are found to have HIV, the remainder having symptoms due to other processes. In contrast, over a given year, there is almost no one who has not had a viral illness, night sweats or both (sometimes on multiple occasions). For a person to try to judge their HIV risk based on "ARS symptoms" is a waste of time.
Hope these comments help. Stop worrying about which test is better, they are all quite good. You do not have HIV. EWH
Thank-you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo MUCH!!!!!!
Happy Holidays to you and yours
The reason I am so concerned is that I may have gotten blood from an hiv infected person through major lip cut post topical anticancer treatment. And having the icma , which tests for p24 antigen, the western blot may not have detected the antibody as it was not formed at this time. Also, can stress over all this weaken your immune system to the point at which you have delayed antibodies?
Thank-you
Thank-you for your prompt reply. Just to clarify, no need to get 12 week antibody? I am hiv Negative and can move on?. There is so much mis-information out there, even an infectious disease nurse told me to immediately get re-tested with antibody aftter initial reactive antibody test because it may not have had time to show up on the western blot. Hiv is so scarey because you can give it to other people. You are truly a Godsend to me, and your work here is helping so many of us. I am so grateful.
P.S. I will not bother you again, please just answer this last post
y