whats your opinion

[bruno377]

Hi doctors heres my situation about 6 months ago i was in jamaica on vacation and had sex with a prostitute from kingston jamaica she was 21 years old it was mainly oral sex but i rubbed my penis on her vagina and she was really wet i went inside her for about 10 seconds then i stoped. After 5 weeks i got really sick high fever 102 big sore throat lymph nod swealin in the neck i felt like if i had mono so i took antibiotics and the next day the fever was gone and the sore throat was way better the lymph nod were still swollen but not as much i didnt notice a rash about 2 days later i was fine . Then 9 weeks after exposure i got the shingles went to the doctor within the 72 hours so he gave valtrex thats when i started to think about hiv so while i was still taking valtrex i took a hiv test at 10.5 weeks and it was negative but the doctors said that my lymphocytes count was slitghly high the norm is 3.5 and i was 3.8 so heres heres my questions
1. Can ARS appears after 5 weeks or its to late
2. Do i need more testing or my hiv test at 10.5 weeks is conclusive
3.The fact that my lymphocytes were high is that something you see in hiv pos or could that be the cause of the shingles
4.Is it possible that the lab made a mistake with my hiv test

thank you

[bruno377]

thank you doctor

[bruno377]

btw i performed oral sex on her too is that high risk cause she was wet

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to our Forum. Before I address your specific questions, let me make a few observations based on what you have said. the exposure you describe is low risk.  Most commercial sex workers in Jamaica do not have HIV. Even is she did, the risk of the expsoure you describe is very low risk - effectively no risk from receipt of oral sex or from rubbing and, IF she was infected (doubtful), a single episode of vaginal intercourse with an infected partner only leads to infection once in every thousand acts of intercourse and in your case, the risk would be even lower, given how short your exposure was.  Thus, even before we get to your specific questions, let me assure you that the exposure you describe was low risk.  Now on to your questions:

1.  Typically the ARS begins at around 2-3 weeks, 5 weeks is on the long side.

2.  Your 10.5 week test is conclusive.  If any of your symptoms were a manifestation of the ARS, your 10 week test would have been positive.  In addition, I am not aware of any infected person that I have seen or heard of who has taken more than 8 weeks to develop a positive test.

3.  I suspect that your elevated lymphocyte count is a manifestation of your shingles.  Trying to use a lymphocyte count to assess your risk for HIV is not a wise thing to do.  It is too non-specific a test.

4.  Most unlikely.

Hope these comments are helpful to you.  EWH

[bruno377]

i forgot to tell you doctor that at night i feel hot but my tempeerture is low its between 96.4 to 96.9 does that mean anything