[Question #11502] Scared of hiv
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14 months ago
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Hello doctors, I am a woman living in Belgium (where it happened). I had an unprotected sexual exposure to a unknown male (without consent, I was passed out). This happened in the fall of 2019. Since then I’ve been scared of HIV. I have this lingering fear that i had an unsymptomatic covid infection (whatever variant was dominant at the time in Europe) or something while I had my blood drawn for my HIV test and that that would make my HIV antibody test falsely negative. I was never tested for covid before the HIV test. I had the following tests at the dr’s office, all were HIV antibody-only tests with blood drawn from my vein:
- may 2021: HIV antibody test: negative. Other values in my blood like CRP and others were quite elevated.
- march 2022: HIV antibody test: negative. Again, some values like CRP were elevated.
- may 2022: hiv antibody test: negative. I had just recovered from covid, so some values in my blood were elevated.
- july 2023: HIV antibody test: negative. This time I asked to just check for HIV, so that I wouldn’t have the anxiety of other blood values that were elevated.
When the results of my first 3 HIV tests came back, the doctor asked me if I was sick during the blood draw for the HIV test. I don’t recall being sick. I do know I had my covid vaccine in june 2021, then again in july 2021 and lastly in december 2021.
Can I be absolutely certain that I don’t have HIV?
Thanks!
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
14 months ago
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Welcome to our Forum. Thanks for your questions and your confidence in our service. I'll be glad to comment. I'm sorry for the assault you experienced. I hope that you are recovering from this.
You can be confident that you do not have HIV- your results prove this without a doubt. Let me explain a little bit more.
---The have been a very few reports of COVID making people have transient falsely positive tests for HIV. This is thought to be a result of high antibody levels to the COVID virus which, although COVID is totally unrelated to HIV, the high antibody levels from an active COVID infection can "confuse" the test, leading to falsely positive tests. On the other hand I am not aware of falsely negative HIV tests related to COVID.
There is no evidence that the COVID vaccine leads to inaccurate tests for HIV.
In addition, I should add that when COVID effects tests for HIV, the effects are transient, lasting just a few weeks or months, not years. The fact that you have had repeated negative tests over more than two years is completely reliable proof that you were not infected by the assault you experienced.
I hope that this information is helpful. Please use your up to two follow-ups for clarification if any part of this explanation is unclear. EWH
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14 months ago
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Hello dr. Hook,
Thank you so much for taking your time to answer me!
This may sound a bit ridiculous, but i got it in my head that maybe I had (asymptomatic and undiagnosed) covid/coronavirus all four times I got tested for HIV ( because I always had elevated levels of CRP and other things that point to some kind of infection whenever I got tested for HIV). Can I still be completely certain that I don’t have HIV?
I also have something, like a raised patch or something on the side of my tongue and also something stuck on my tongue towards my throat or in my throat. This has been like this for a few months. I haven’t looked at it because I am scared that it would be hairy leukoplakia. Do you think that is possible? Do you think it could be a symptom of HIV?
One last thing, you say that when covid affects tests for HIV, the effects are transient. You mean that in relation to the fact that covid might cause a false positive HIV result and not a false negative HIV result?
Thank you!
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
14 months ago
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The likelihood that you had COVID every time you were tested for HIV is lower than the likelihood that you are going to be struck by lightening today. Please don't focus on the CRP- it i highly non-specific sign of inflammation and fluctuates greatly from day to day and person to person. I would urge you not to even test for it.
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We do not make diagnoses on this forum and even I we did, I could not tell you what the spot on your tongue is. I would ask your dentist to comment
We I said that the effects of COVID on HIV tests are transient, I was indicating that if you had COVID and a falsely positive HIV, a few weeks later the falsely positive HIV test would no longer be present while if you had HIV, the falsely positive test would remain falsely positive. The vast majority of persons with COVID WILL NOT have falsely positive HIV tests and as I said above, there are no data to suggest that COVID might cause a persistent falsely negative antibody test for HIV.
It's complicated. I am entirely confident however that you have proven that you do no have HIV. EWH
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14 months ago
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Ok thank you. I made a dentist appointment to get it checked out. I understand that you do not make diagnoses here, that’s not possible. I just want to be sure that what I have on the side of my tongue/in my throat isn’t a symptom of HIV. Can i be sure that what I have on the side of my tongue/in my throat is not a symptom/sign of HIV?
I would also like to add that it wasn’t just CRP that was elevated, also certain white blood cells levels and other things were elevated.
Anyway I would just like to leave this behind me. I want to move on and have a happy healthy life and be certain that I don’t have HIV. Can i be 100% certain that I don’t have HIV?
Thank you and apologies for repeating my questions.. I’m anxious
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
14 months ago
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The spot you have noticed on your tongue cannot be due to HIV because you proved that without a doubt that you don’t have HIV. The oral lesions of HIV only occur in persons who have been infected for years and those persons always have positive tests.
Both the CRP and white blood cell counts are very nonspecific.
You can be 100% confident that you don’t have HIV.
As you know, we provide up to 3 responses to each client’s questions. This is my 3rd response and therefore the thread will be closed soon. I wonder if your difficulties accepting that you don’t have HIV may be related to the trauma of the assault you experienced. Perhaps it will help to talk this through with a trained counselor.
I wish you the best. EWH
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14 months ago
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Thank you for your insights. I should stay of the internet i guess.
Thanks for the info about the false positive hiv tests and covid. I was trying to read reports about it and i had understood that the interference with the hiv tests had to do with covid antigen instead of covid antibodies. So thanks for clearing that up.
Have a nice weekend!
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
14 months ago
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Thanks for your follow up. The Internet is not your friend here. While there is some useful information to be found there much of what will be found as misleading, either because it is out of date, taken out of context, misinterpreted, or just plain wrong. Please stay off the Internet.
This completes this thread, which will now be closed. Take care. EWH.
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