HIV/AIDS Community

The symptoms of early HIV are described as "flu like" in nature. They occur two to six weeks after transmission, not the next day.

Your HIV antibody test taken three days after the sexual contact was useless in terms of accuracy.

Gail

I have flu like symptoms I kept on sleeping whole day today with dizzyness while waking up and night sweats today is exactly a week after the intercourse

Well, you may possibly have the flu.

The point is, we do not attempt to diagnose HIV by symptoms, only through accurate tests for this disease.

It is hard to believe that the physician you saw would order such tests as antibody tests and cd4 determination on a possible exposure that took place only a week ago.

Your body would not have had time to develop antibodies in this short period. And the cd4 test result would tell you absolutely nothing regarding your status.


Gail

For what it's worth...

Protected intercourse with an HIV positive individual (assuming the condom was used accurately and did not break or tear) carries a zero rate of transmission. The virus cannot cross an intact barrier.

Oral sex (both giving and receiving) carries an estimated risk of .5 to 1 per 10,000 exposures with a source KNOWN to carry the virus. Your risk would be less since you cannot confirm your partners status.

Gail

Thanks Doc.. It gave me some energy. I figured out I had a high BP(160/110) because of which I was feeling dizzy. So tablet for high BP took that away. But still I sweated a lot today dont know the reason.. yaa but its very humid here. I rubbed my forehead to wipe out the sweat quite a lot and could see a small red rash does it mean anything at this stage? its just one week now. otherwise everything is quite ok but just a lot of sweat.

I m really worried about my situation now.. I m getting these night sweats and tingling in the body which states the upcoming fever and this rash.. looks like i hv contracted hiv

(Sigh). You did read the information regarding your risk from receiving oral sex, correct? And the fact that none of these symptoms would show up such a short time period after transmission.

The redness on your forehead is from you wiping the sweat away; in addition, the sweat itself can be irritating to the skin, especially in very hot and humid weather.

If you are convinced you have contracted HIV there is likely little or nothing an internet site can tell you that will change your mind. Do yourself a favor. Take another screening test 4 weeks after this event and another one 3 months after the event. They will both come back as "non-reactive" (negative) this may help convince you that you are HIV negative and that many of your symptoms have more to do with worry and stress than an actual infection.

Gail

Hello Doc, Thanks for the words I felt better last few days and it was just a mild headache which didnt bother after BP tablet. Its been 2 weeks now.
All ulcers. pimples etc are gone. This saturday I had the report of HIV 1 RNA Quantitative PCR which came out to be indeterminant result.. what does that mean? can you give me an idea? I will retest lets say after a month or 20 days for antibodies. but what does this indeterminant HIV 1 RNA Quantitative PCR mean? They have asked for my sample again. I am not going to send it as of now looks like this test is for the guys who have already been infected?

Is it possible to be infected without much symptoms being visible?

but nonethless I have to wait for 3 - 4 weeks for any symptoms to show up

Hello Doc Now I started to worry again.. Yesterday night I could not sleep sweated a lot and felt a mild pain in hip which is not there now but sweats are there and feeling like I will develop a rash on body(back, side) because of this sweat.. need your advice.. will take the BP pill to see if all that goes away I had a little bit of neck pain too.

I have sore throat and cough too

Hello, everyone. Scouring the internet, ever as I have been doing of late for new information, I replied to this discussion forum since this experience is so very close to mine. I hope to inform and help, if at all possible. To answer your question, the PCR HIV test is a test designed to look for a protein attached to the RNA strain of HIV itself. This tests effective window period ranges from 24 to 72 hours after your estimated exposure episode, and is intended to be followed up with your common antibody oraquick or Elisa test in the following months. The fact that it tested negative is a real encouraging sign, so far.

My experience is dated practically the same time as AN_246...'s, back in the summer. It was a possible oral transmission intact with a incidental bit lip which may have opened myself up for an infection. Within two days time, incredibly too soon considering, I understand, I developed a nasty case of muscle spasms, shivering episodes, ulcers, acne, and diaphoresis (lots of sweating), and diarrhea - similar to gastroenteritis. Within a weak, I got a full-blown flu: high fever, rash, muscle and joint aches, weakness, thirst, dizzy episodes, swollen lymph nodes (neck), and headaches. Once more, this suspected ARS flu came a week before expectation. The mainstay of the flu lasted two weeks, but a reduced fever, headache, rash, and dizzy episodes persisted for a total of 3 moths.

Unfortunately, the culprit which was causing some of the problems was fear, stress, and anxiety itself. Anxiety can cause some types of inflammatory problems, like in my case - central serous. That's right, I worried myself partially blind, although that is healing to some degree. Anxiety can also weaken your immune system, and cause many other problems in your life, and your ability to fight infection. Speaking from my own experience, searching for information and getting routine tests will help allay that anxiety. However, the persistant and chronic symptoms which cannot be easily explained or treated have a nasty affect of stressing me out again and bringing me into the fold of searching for more information to rationalize said symptoms; hence, I arrived to this disccusion forum

So far, I have tested out with Elisa when I went in to the urgent care during the flu episode at week 1 - negative, at 5 weeks with an oraquick - neg, at 2 months with Elisa again - neg, and at 4 months with another oraquick - neg. Statistically, it looks very good, for me. I am being diligent by waiting to test again at 6 months, which should be conclusive enough, and again at 1 year, just to be extra sure - given the ever-so-small chance that I am not one of those statistical outliers. I hope this helps. I would like to thank people like Gail for taking the time and effort to inform the public and reduce their worries, and I hope things turn out well for all of us.

Sharma, I am in the same pressure you were in. I tested HIV 12/ negative for DNA PCR and Antibody test at 42nd Day of my exposure. And tested negative for HIV Rapid Blood testing at 46th day. Ofcourse I need to test again with antibody testing at 3 months. I read many things about symptoms in internet and I made myself convinced that I got all symptoms due to anxiety and tension. Have you tested again later and what are the results. Hope everything is fine.