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Is Negative ELISA HIV Test 7 Days After Sexual Encounter Conclusive?

Posted on Tue, 27 Dec 2016

Question: i went to thailand a week back, i had a pimple which broke during a soapy massage which i only noticed after it was over, now after 7 days i have a fever, and a mild throa tpain, fever responds to paracetomol, getting better, and right now around 99.4 f my sore throat is also mild, i took a hiv ECLIA test yesterday which turned out to be negative, am still scared, will a PCR RNA test confirm my status?

Answered by Dr. Manish Purohit (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
PCR and P24 antigen assay will be helpful .

Detailed Answer:
Dear sir
Thanks for posting your query to HCM .

ELISA is not informative during early period of infection .it is useful usually after 4th weak of exposure.
P24 antigen assay and PCR will be helpful in diagnosing HIV status during early period.

Feel free to contact if any query .

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vaishalee Punj

Follow up: Dr. Manish Purohit (16 hours later)

how many days should i wait before doing the PCR RNA test ? Do hiv induced fever respond to medications or go down within 2-3 days? and the sorethroat gets worse at night and when i wake up its really painful, but as the day goes by, it gets better...what lymph nodes swell for HIV infection?

Answered by Dr. Manish Purohit (29 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
You dont need to wait .

Detailed Answer:
you dont need to wait as P24 antigen and virus nucleic acid are found during acute illness . they disappear durind latency period .
lymph node enlargment is a late feature, month to years after infection and it can be from any part of body like inguinal , cervical , axillary etc.
hope it will help you .

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Remy Koshy

Follow up: Dr. Manish Purohit (6 hours later)

the lab receptionist said they only had a HIV viral load test, i hope that test is good the results will come in only on the 13th, does HIV viral load test detect early HIV ? if so how accurate is the test?

Answered by Dr. Manish Purohit (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Yes it is a good test .

Detailed Answer:
Dear sir ,
If other tests are not available you can be investigated by viral load test because it also measure viral RNA load in your blood .
It is highly sensitive and specific test doing by molecular method .
Hope it will solve your doubt .

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T