POSSIBLE HIV 2 ?

[SakalaOwen]

Okay so my story starts off in late 2020 (October 2 to be specific). I was drunk and stupid and should have known better. I engaged in an act of unprotected oral intercourse with a woman I met at a party. I had no way of contacting her afterwards. But I got worried about HIV and went to a clinic to ask for pep (just within the 72 hour window period).

I took the pep for 28 days and then I got a swollen node in my left armpit 10 days after I stopped (it was really big, anyone could notice if I took off my shirt). I also got some skin redness on upper trunk and one spot on my arm. I developed a bit of oral ulcers and lost a bit of weight (less than 10 kg). I was sure I had caught the dreaded Virus.

The confusing thing is I have done the following tests and all are negative :
1. Fourth generation HIV 1/2 Ag/Ab : over 5 times (at 3 months, 6 months , 7, 18 ) at two different labs : All are negative.
2. I did HIV 1 RNA 2 times at 6 months and 18 months, all undetected (target undetected )
3. Over 20 home tests
4. I did a CD4 test that showed my cd4 is at 706 cells

I still experience the sores in my mouth and I'm having trouble gaining my lost weight back.

Any advice ? Maybe she gave me HIV 2. I am from South Africa

[GuitarRox]

Here's the burn. All this worry for such a long time, pep and testing for a non risk event. Oral sex does not transmit the virus. The only risks are having unprotected vaginal or anal sex or sharing IV drug needles. Air and saliva inactive the virus. You never even needed to test the first time let alone take pep and have all the testing you did and continued worry. No risk

[AnxiousNoMore]

Your situation involves personal contact with an object in air  (mouth, lips etc. ). You will be happy to learn that you had no risk, because you can't get hiv from personal contact except unprotected penetrating vaginal or anal with a penis, neither of which you did and you didn't share hollow needles to inject with which is the only other way to acquire hiv - there are ONLY 3 ways to get hiv. Note that 2 of them require a penis and the third requires a hollow injecting shared needle - there are no OTHER ways to get hiv. Analysis of large numbers of infected people over the 40 years of hiv history has proven that people don't get hiv in the way you are worried is a risk.
Hiv is a fragile virus in air or saliva and is effectively instantly dead in either air or saliva so the WORST that could happen is dead virus rubbed you, and obviously anything which is dead cannot live again so you are good. Blood and cuts would not be relevant in your situation since the hiv has become effectively dead, so you don't have to worry about them to be sure that you are safe.
There is no reason for a person to test when they are safe. The advice took into consideration that the other person might be positive, so move on and enjoy life instead of thinking about this non-event. hiv prevention is straightforward since there are only 3 ways you can become infected, so next time you wonder if you had a risk, ask yourself this QUESTION. "Did I do any of the 3?" Then after you say "No, I didn't" you will know that it's time to move on back to your happy life.
No one got hiv from what you did during 40 years of hiv history and no one will get it in the next 40 years of your life either.  You can do what you did any time and be safe from hiv.
The other person's status is irrelevant when you have no exposure to live virus.
See a doctor to see if he can clear up any mouth sores or help you gain weight, etc. Self diagnosing hiv has been a waste of 1.5 years of your life.

[AnxiousNoMore]

It's not surprising that you test negative, since you are negative. Further hiv testing will indicate hiv fixation and would be best treated by a therapist.