white blood cell count

[harleygirl69]

hello,

        My son is 18 years old and had unprotected sex about a month ago. he got word from others in town that she was infected with HIV/AIDS. He went and had blood work done and the results were that his white blood cell count was low enough to maybe a symptom of HIV. However, he went with a cold and failed to let his doctor know. My question is, Does a cold lower your immune system enough to lower your white blood cell count to may think that HIV is possible?          

                                                                                       Thank you
                                                                               Harleygirl69

[harleygirl69]

ty all for answering my questions.. it helped me very much.. good news.. the girlfriend tested negative and so far so has my son

                                                                                harleygirl69

[joachim2007]

a low WBC is not a criteria for acute (primary) HIV infection. (at least, one would need to differentiate between cd4 and cd8 cells, and even that is not really safe to use)

so, whay your son can do:

- take HIV 1/2 antibody tests. Most people who get infected with HIV will test positive after ca 25 days. So, a negative test at this point would be a very good sign, low WBC or not.

- ask if it is possible to get a 4th generation test (that is antibody test combined with + HIV1 p24 antigen, i think most hosptials use it anyway nowadays), which closes the window period even further.

- if your son's girlfriend was really (confirmed) HIV/AIDS patient, then he might also consider a PCR test (measures viral load, which is usually be sky high in primary infection). However, if the girl is not a high risk group and the sex was not particulary risky (no blood, etc.) then most doctors would advise against a PCR test. But anyway the option exists.

So, if your son already tested negative at 1 month post exposure with a valid modern antibody test, then it's already very good. All he would need to do is to relax for 2 months and take the "gold standard" test, the antibody test three months post exposure.

And of course, he might want to test for other STDs, but here one hopefully can rely on the doctors, ie. that they order the correct test.

good luck, all the best. i hope your son can dodge this bullet and will learn a lesson from it. (i had the same experience, so i know what i am talking about..)

[copyman]

i think you are in the wrong forum. post it in either the STD forum or not sure but see if there is an HIV forum. many things can cause low WBC. i do not think having a cold will lower the WBC, if anything infections, etc will raise the WBC as it fights it off.  best of luck