HIV/AIDS Community

I have been hiv+ around 10 yrs, I'm just a layman but have done alot of research in the past ten yrs and i don't think you have a thing to worry about. 1st of all i9've never heard of hiv working that fast, stress and worries will cause alot of your problems so ease up on yourself, and may god bless

thank u for ur fast reply, i appreciate it specially from someone that is going thru it. I know i shudnt worry bout i am just set on this till the 3 month mark in a few wks. something has to give on all this hiv related symptoms(which are all pretty generic) showing up 1wk after condom breakage. But i really do appreciate u. live long and strong. and keep up the good work.

I do not see any reason to believe you have HIV.

First, your symptoms have nothing to do with HIV. The only symptoms that anyone may experience after infection is a short illness that looks and feels exactly like the flu. Your symptoms do not match and they have gone on much too long to have any connection with HIV.

Second, you have had several RNA PCR tests. While these tests are not recommended for HIV diagnosis, that is due to their tendency for false positives.

If you had been infected, your blood would have been swimming with HIV by 18 days and by 5 1/2 weeks. The antibody tests have such a long window period because of the variable of individual's immune responses. However, the RNA PCR test depends on HIV's replication. Once it enters the blood stream and infects a CD4 cell, it begins making copies rapidly and the viral load increases exponentially.That no HIV was found indicates to be that there was no HIV to be found in the first place.

Your last antibody test at 9 1/2 weeks, while not 100% conclusive, is so very close to conclusive that combined with the PCR results I don't see any reason to doubt it. 95% of people who get infected will test positive by 30 days.

And, at the very root of the matter, your risk was not terribly great. We're talking about a few brief moments of unprotected exposure to vaginal fluids. The average estimated risk of infection for a man having unprotected vaginal intercourse with a woman known to have HIV is 1 in 2000. The odds are much better for you because of the short duration and the fact that you don't know that the woman is infected at all. She may be "promiscuous," but that doesn't mean anything if she play safe.

I would recommend you get a final antibody test on February 18 just for the peace of mind, but I really don't think you have HIV and I don't think you have any reason to worry. If it weren't for your state of mind, I would even go so far as to say that you don't need any further testing.

Dan

thanks dan, i am new to this site but i see from reading other posts that ur a trusted expert on hiv, while the only thing that has kept me going is all the negative combined test. i didnt mention that the condom breakage was 2x on the same night but different act. i am not sure how long it was broken for as i noticed the condom once i was cleaning myself, I am uncircumsized, and i went from vaginal to anal on both acts. So that is why i am such a worry well. but again ur an expert and i like what i have read on the 2 post and will look foward to test again to end this whole thing already.

Dear tooparanoid

Please keep in mind (as Dan wrote) that none of your symptoms have anything to do with HIV.

How do we know this?

Because it takes...literally....years for the virus to damage your immune system to the point where one might begin to develop oral thrush, severe weight loss, GI issues w/malnutrition, specific types of pneumonia, skin lesions, etc.. On the average a decade in an untreated individual. Such damage does not occur weeks, months or even a few years after transmission.

What one does see in early onset HIV is a 2 week period of flu like symptoms that occur two to six weeks after the initial tranmission. That's it. Once that two week period is over, there ARE no symptoms for many years (one reason quite a few people ARE walking around with HIV and unless they are tested, are totally unaware of this).

Thus, when someone reports symptoms that we only see in end stage HIV weeks or a few months after a possible exposure we realize that it's quite likely they're suffering more from "internetitis", having cruised the web looking for symptoms and ending up seeing every symptom in themselves.

In other words, as you said "in my mind I believe I have HIV". Of course you do. And thus every "symptom" you've noticed simply confirms this.

Quite frankly, there is no reason that a 12 week screening test (which is the recommended time period to wait for testing) will show absolutely no different results than all the previous (and pretty darn expensive!) testing you've already undergone.

Gail

A post of mine seems to have gotten lost.

Anyhow: 2 condom breakages in one night is highly unusual. Condoms generally have a failure rate of 2% but I've used them well over 100 times and I've never experienced a break.

You should in future make sure to use ordinary latex condoms, not sheepskin or ultra-thin or some kind of novelty type. You should also make sure to use plenty of water- or silicone-based lubricant. Never use an oil-based lubricant: that can weaken the latex and make breakages easier.

Dan

Thank's for all the replies. I am bit more at peace. On 1/15 I had another naat test while getting my 8wk elisa, well I got the results yesterday n those were negative as well. I guess my Main concern is that hiv is hiding in my lymph nodes. Is that possible? That it has not yet entered my blood stream n therefor was not detected by the PCR test. I ain't an expert, but in theory can that be the case? How soon after infection does it take hiv to go into the bloodstream n start to replicate? I am sorry for all the questions. I promise no more post. Thank u!

Oh I forgot to mention this part. My question regarding my lymph nodes is due to having swelling n tenderness that I had never felt be4 n its all over my body, neck, armpits, hips, groin, between the legs, behind my knees and even my back. They come n go mostly at night. I think I read somewhere that its called lympadomapathy, generalized swealling of the lymph nodes system. I had never exp any lymph node swelling prior to this high risk exposure or even researched it before till after I expirienced the swelling. So what do u think?

The virus is not "hiding" in your lymph nodes.

Gail

No, that cannot be the case.

HIV does not "hide," not in the lymph nodes nor anywhere else.

A virus is an errant strand of DNA that cannot make copies of itself by itself but instead has to get inside another cell and use the reproductive faculty of the cell to replicate itself. Different viruses will be able to penetrate some cells but not others; HIV's chemical structure allows it to enter the CD4 white blood cells, whose main job is to destroy infections.

These "T-cells" are present in the blood, created by your bone marrow. They have nothing to do with the lymph nodes. The lymph nodes are filters that remove infections from the blood.

When HIV first enters the body, there many only be a few copies. If they find their way into a CD4 cell, they begin to replicate until they fill us the cell and the cell bursts, releasing thousands of HIV copies into the blood to infect other cells. There is no "hiding" involved, because if HIV cannot find a cell to infect it will die.

Dan

ok. so how does the lympadomapathy occur in ARS? Isnt HIV in the lymph nodes at that time, so does blood flow thru the lympathic system? i am scared that the white tounge and oral abscess of the gum is due to something messing with my lymph node and my immune system. also people say to get tested till 3 months except for those that have surpressed immune systems due to cancer, long time drug use, chemotheraphy. Im afraid that i am going to be a late seroconverter due to having stomach issues since i was a kid. i get sick when eating certain food. I dont get sick like i need to go to hospital. i would just have constant bowel movement and most of the time it was loose but not like diareah. just loose and very frequently. i am wondering if that would have lowered or surpressed my immune system even though i have never taken medicine or anything like that infect i am usually very healthy n rarely get sick, even now with the ARS i cant remember getting a fever at anytime, maybe that is not a good thing. now lets say that i did have a surpressed immune system and i was going thru ARS, would if hit me harder than someone that was ok and just going thru ARS, would i have been hospitalized due to the ARS with a weaken immune system. I only have 2 more weeks to go till the 12th week. Or do we have to test at the 13th week. i hate that after all these yrs we still dont have a reliable test available to diagnose early hiv a few days after infection. Also u mentioned the NAAT test having false positives. i have had a naat test @ 5 1/2 n 8wks, do u think one of the test would have picked up the hiv. thanks for all the help and i think the best of u (dan) and gail,

ARS is identical to the flu, except that instead of the influenza virus it's HIV that triggers the response.

Shortly after HIV enters the body, it starts making copies of itself and the amount of HIV in the blood skyrockets very quickly.

The lymph nodes filter the blood from infections. As HIV multiplies, they go into action. As they do their job, they swell. That's what swollen lymph nodes are: a sign that they are filtering the blood from infection.

Stomach issues as a kid would not affect the rate at which your body produces antibodies. But anyway: the PCR test could not find any HIV in your blood at 18 days or at 5 1/2 weeks. If you had been infected your blood would be swimming with HIV. That, to me, proves you are negative.

hey dan,

thanks for the reply and ur honest answer. I just dont like to kid myself. what else can make ur lymph nodes swell all over the body after a recent hiv risk expousure. I checked the list of illnesses n the rest wouldnt make sense. I believe HIV is the main cause of my issue, I know that after all the testing and all the negatives everything shub be good inside me, but its not. i mean the only ARS symptoms that i havent gotten during the 2 1/2 period has been fever and sword throat, but just yesterday i had issues with the swollen lymph nodes all day and again they were all over the body and this happens often. Its scary to feel a lymph node swell n to tell urself that must be my lymph nodes attempting to filter out HIV. Thats the reality of it at this point. I will go and get tested again at the 12wk mark. At this point i guess i am more hoping that i would just be infected with HIV and not with HPV too, that would just suck. By the way whats the difference testing wise between a NAAT and a PCR RNA? Dont both of them look for the virus itself. I know that NAAT is a test being offered as a comb when taking a rapid hiv test here in chicago.