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HIV Risk Assessment and HIV Test Question
Hello Doctor,
I'll be brief...I am currently on Valtrex for genital herpes and I was wondering if Valtrex or any other medications can affect an HIV result. For example, could Valtrex delay the test from becoming positive or produce a false negative result? I tested negative at 25 days past my last unprotected exposure with the Rapid Finger stick Test. How confident can I be with this result??? My risk of exposure included both protected and unprotected sexual intercourse over the course of about a month with a heterosexual male who is 25 years old and doesn't do IV drugs. Is this a big risk factor? Also, are the rapid tests more likely to be delayed in becoming positive if a person is on Valtrex?
Thanks for your help
I'll be brief...I am currently on Valtrex for genital herpes and I was wondering if Valtrex or any other medications can affect an HIV result. For example, could Valtrex delay the test from becoming positive or produce a false negative result? I tested negative at 25 days past my last unprotected exposure with the Rapid Finger stick Test. How confident can I be with this result??? My risk of exposure included both protected and unprotected sexual intercourse over the course of about a month with a heterosexual male who is 25 years old and doesn't do IV drugs. Is this a big risk factor? Also, are the rapid tests more likely to be delayed in becoming positive if a person is on Valtrex?
Thanks for your help
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
What happened to your pledge? And why would it even enter your mind that the person who tested you would give you misinformation about the test? It's true.
Thanks for the thanks, but that has to end this thread. No exceptions or I will delete the entire thread without further reply.
Thanks for the thanks, but that has to end this thread. No exceptions or I will delete the entire thread without further reply.
Dr. Hook or Dr. Handsfield,
Could one of you please respond to my last comment. I was just wondering if what I was told regarding HIV NAT is true? Thank you!
Could one of you please respond to my last comment. I was just wondering if what I was told regarding HIV NAT is true? Thank you!
Dr. Handsfield,
I just wanted to let you know that I donated blood on Monday and got my results back yesterday, and EVERYTHING was negative!!! I spoke with the Director of the Lab and she said that they test HIV both with an antibody test and with the HIV NAT, which she informed me picks up infection within 12-13 days past exposure so I feel that my HIV scare is finally over now since it was 18 days past my exposure. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I really feel I can move on now. Thanks so much for all your help and advice and reassurance on this forum. I would really like to make a donation, if ya'll accept them. Could you please give me the information to do that. And again, thanks so much!
I just wanted to let you know that I donated blood on Monday and got my results back yesterday, and EVERYTHING was negative!!! I spoke with the Director of the Lab and she said that they test HIV both with an antibody test and with the HIV NAT, which she informed me picks up infection within 12-13 days past exposure so I feel that my HIV scare is finally over now since it was 18 days past my exposure. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I really feel I can move on now. Thanks so much for all your help and advice and reassurance on this forum. I would really like to make a donation, if ya'll accept them. Could you please give me the information to do that. And again, thanks so much!
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
It indeed is your anxiety working overtime. I'm sure you can trust the test result.
There is no cause for anxiety in this situation. You did not catch HIV.
I'm going to hold you to your pledge about that being the last question. Take care.
There is no cause for anxiety in this situation. You did not catch HIV.
I'm going to hold you to your pledge about that being the last question. Take care.
Dr. Handsfield, could you please answer one more question for me? Perhaps this is my anxiety working overtime, and if it is, please tell me so, but when I got my rapid test done, the counselor called me back in there and told me it was negative and showed me the test stick. There was only one line (the control line) however, there was a red line coming up from the bottom of the test stick and she said that that was just showing the the test was working and that it was almost finished. I have been kinda concerned about that and didn't know if that is considered normal, even though she assured me that it was in fact a negative result. Like I said, I'm probably overanalyzing the situation, but I wanted to run that by you and see what you thought. I promise, this is my last post!
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
No medical conditions affect HIV test results or delay seroconversion. As for chemotherapy, very advanced life threatening illness (terminal cancer, for example) might have that effect, but even that is only theoretical.
Thanks so much for your response! Just some additional info on my partner, he has never been in prison, is Caucasian, and i'm not really sure if he has ever had sex like on vacation or something, but he has lived in TN since he was 11. I don't really know if this changes the risk factor or not. I have one final question. I meant to put it in my first post, but forgot, SORRY! Can other STD's (i.e., Chlamydia, Herpes, Hepatitis B/C, etc.) affect an HIV test of delay seroconversion of HIV. I guess what I'm trying to ask is if I do have another STD, would it delay the positive result or make for a longer "window period" for HIV. This is my final concern. Thanks again Dr.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
No existing medicines delay HIV seroconversion or otherwise alter the reliability of HIV testing. It is often said that advanced chemotherapy or potent immunosuppressive drugs might do so, but even those effects are unproved -- theoretical with few if any actual reports of it happening. Certainly Valtrex has no effect at all.
Probably around 80-90% of newly infected people have positive antibody tests at 25 days, so your result is reassuring but not proof. (The rapid tests become positive just as quickly as the lab-based tests.) That your partner isn't bisexual or an injection drug user suggests he is at very low risk for having HIV. However, you don't mention other issues that could affect the risk, such as whether or not your partner is a member of a minority group, especially African American; whether he has been imprisoned; where he lives or where else in the world he might have been sexually active. But assuming those issues don't apply, you describe a partner at virtually zero risk for HIV, I see no worries here.
Assuming your genital herpes is due to HSV-2, your risk of catching HIV is roughly double what it otherwise would be. However, you still have to be exposed to an infected person. Anyway, when the baseline risk is extremely low, even a double risk makes little practical difference.
Therefore, you really don't need additional testing. But if you want 100% proof you weren't infected, have another HIV test 6-12 weeks after your last sex with your former partner. In the meantime, don't lose any sleep about it. For most populations in the US, HIV is very rare in circumstances like you describe.
You should also be tested for chlamyida, gonorrhea and syphilis, if those haven't been done. Statistically, you are at far higher risks for those STDs than for HIV.
I hope this helps. Best wishes-- HHH, MD
Probably around 80-90% of newly infected people have positive antibody tests at 25 days, so your result is reassuring but not proof. (The rapid tests become positive just as quickly as the lab-based tests.) That your partner isn't bisexual or an injection drug user suggests he is at very low risk for having HIV. However, you don't mention other issues that could affect the risk, such as whether or not your partner is a member of a minority group, especially African American; whether he has been imprisoned; where he lives or where else in the world he might have been sexually active. But assuming those issues don't apply, you describe a partner at virtually zero risk for HIV, I see no worries here.
Assuming your genital herpes is due to HSV-2, your risk of catching HIV is roughly double what it otherwise would be. However, you still have to be exposed to an infected person. Anyway, when the baseline risk is extremely low, even a double risk makes little practical difference.
Therefore, you really don't need additional testing. But if you want 100% proof you weren't infected, have another HIV test 6-12 weeks after your last sex with your former partner. In the meantime, don't lose any sleep about it. For most populations in the US, HIV is very rare in circumstances like you describe.
You should also be tested for chlamyida, gonorrhea and syphilis, if those haven't been done. Statistically, you are at far higher risks for those STDs than for HIV.
I hope this helps. Best wishes-- HHH, MD
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