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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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What Are The Symptoms HIV?

Hi, I am a male and about 2 year back I received unprotected oral sex from a stripper. 4 weeks from then I had fever and swollen lymph nodes. I also tingling sensation on the penis right after the exposure for about a week and had the same few weeks later. I got early detection tests done for HIV and herpes 32 hours post exposure - HIV came negative and herpes was equivocal. I have had 4-5 Hiv antibody tests done from then and all have been negative. I had one at 15th month HIV 3rd generation Antibody test (HIV-1 Antibody and HIV 1/O/2 Abs, Qual) which also came back negative. I have experienced chest pain, shortness of breath and chronic diarrhea and intermittent dry cough. Shortness of breath has been constant and I do not have any nasal congestion or sinus issues. My PCP has done EKG, chest xray and some blood tests and has no reasoning for this. I am so worried about this being HIV and it not showing up on my tests. I have read on forums that tests after 6 months are conclusive but these symptoms without explanation are terrifying. As of now, I have the following main symptoms 1. Chronic Diarrhea - been going on for more than 1 year now. Endoscopy done which didn't find anything. 2. Cottage cheese like whiteness on the tongue and redness on the inside upper mouth for more than 1year 3. Neck pain/stiffness
I got another HIV test (HIV Screen 4th Generation wRfx) which was non-reactive and this test was done 2 1/2 years from the date of exposure. Searching medical sites suggests that there are cases where people are hiv positive but it doesn't get detected on tests for a long period of time as the tests are not 100% guaranteed (antibodies develop differently in different people). I am worried if I am one of those people as I have so many symptoms with no medically explainable reason behind them. What are the chances of me having it without it turning up in the tests that have been done so far?

I would have considered the test conclusive evidence of not having HIV if I had clear diagnosis of what could be causing these symptoms. But since its not explainable, I am really worried.
Thu, 9 Apr 2015
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General & Family Physician 's  Response
Hello
welcome to HCM
I have read query and i understand your concern.
May be at that time you got sexually transmitted disease as described by your symptoms.Did you VDRL OR HSV2 test back then?
Do not worry ,you have done many tests and they are all negative but for the first test you should have waited for 4 weeks and then done test but since you have done later also the tests.You do not have HIV.Yes there are chances that you can get HIV after 10 years but its rare and donot consider yourself to be so unlucky.
Relax and in future do not repeat this mistake practise safe sex.
wishing you good health
take care
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Dermatologist Dr. Dr Sangeeta Bhuva's  Response
The symptoms you are sited are seen in hiv infected patients...but if you are having this symptom then at this stage antibody test usually comes positive...in latent period in which test comes negative inspit of infection present in body , then parient is usually asymptomatic due to less viral load....so your symptoms might be due to other etiology....whitish coating on tongue may be due to poor oral hygiene....if its doesnt go away with cleaning the tongue or bleeds when try to remove part of it then it is
oral candidias and you should go for the fluconazol drug therapy....and enlarged lymphnode might be due to some local infection and for fever it is explained in the same way....but still if you want to clear your doubt you may go for plasma viral load test by PCR...which measurs copies of hiv in serum.



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What Are The Symptoms HIV?

Hello welcome to HCM I have read query and i understand your concern. May be at that time you got sexually transmitted disease as described by your symptoms.Did you VDRL OR HSV2 test back then? Do not worry ,you have done many tests and they are all negative but for the first test you should have waited for 4 weeks and then done test but since you have done later also the tests.You do not have HIV.Yes there are chances that you can get HIV after 10 years but its rare and donot consider yourself to be so unlucky. Relax and in future do not repeat this mistake practise safe sex. wishing you good health take care