Needle stick injury please help!

[Melsteph]

I need your help! I stepped on a needle on the beach and my health declined two weeks after. First I had terrible watery diarrhea for about three weeks then the doctors found out it was cryptosporidium. I took medication for it and it finally went away. Then I had really terrible symptoms. My body gets really really hot but I don't have a fever ( I have like a 98-99) I have sore throat all day as well and I get rashes that come and go on my chest. I have also lost 31 pounds! I have a very hard time sleeping I have to take sleeping pills to go to sleep and I have fatigue. I went to an infectious disease doctor (to several of them ) and they have done testing for HIV, hep b and c, TB, toxoplasmosis , CMV and Epstein Barr virus. I even went to the OB/GYN after 5 months to test for herpes, gonorrhea, chymidia and ever other STD and it came back negative except the herpes simplex 1 which is the cold sore one that everyone has. I did that just in case because I had sex after a few weeks of this incident. This testing was done about 2 months and a week after exposure. Everything came back negative except for Epstein Barr virus in the acute phase. I have seen several doctors as my symptoms have not changed much. I have now seen a rheumatologist, a neurologist, and 4 infectious disease doctors. I'm now at the 6 month mark and I've done testing for HIV now like 10 times and everything has come back negative up to the 5 month mark. Tomorrow I go into my infectious disease doctor after 6 months for results of Lyme disease HIV, etc. I re tested in September for Epstein Barr and it showed only past exposure. I still have my symptoms though. Any reccomendations on what I should do ? I fell into a deep depression and I'm taking depression pills which help a lot but I still have symptoms l. Can I still have the Epstein Barr even if it doesn't show its acute? Help! Thanks so much

[mkh9]

Hi, when you can it came back positive again. What exactly came back positive specifically?
thanks
mkh9

[Melsteph]

I'm in the United States. They are going to re test me for it but looks like the Epstein Barr came back positive again so it's being re activating. Let's see how it goes I just want to get better. Thank you for your help!

[mkh9]

Yes there is only one type of syphilis. Although the RPR test has a 20% false negative rate. Not much you can do. You retested so that helps a lot. The only other thing is to do the FTA-antibody test. But in some countries it can be false positive. That is why I would ask what country you are from. If you are in the US, Australia (New Zealand), or Europe, Canada etc. areas it is not going to be false positive. But some other areas it could be.
I think it is probably related to EBV.

[Melsteph]

Hi thank you. Yes I've been checked for syphilis too. Is there a specific one I should test for or there is only one kind ? I tested for it twice and the second time was about a month ago and it came back negative. Thank you for your help in this! Please let me know if you know of a certain test or something I should do. Thanks

[mkh9]

Hi and I'm very sorry you have gone through all this. We are not doctors on here. I am a microbiologist and can give you some advice. EBV can cause all the symptoms you have except that is a lot of weight loss but you can lose about 5-10% of your body weight, especially if you were bed ridden.  You can have the symptoms for several months after your tests are negative.
It is possible you are having some prolonged symptoms of this. I would ask the doctor about chronic EBV. You may want to have your complete blood count rechecked. Were you also checked for Syphilis? It is also a needlestick contaminant if you get it in a place like the beach or other envrionment outside. You may want to ask this question on the Epstein Barr community to see if anyone has had their symptoms long term. I know a lot of people say they have chronic symptoms. That doesn't mean you have that or they are not missing something else.
mkh9