Hello Dr. Hook, I hope you're having a great week.  Wanted to give you an update on my broken condom situation.  I recently got sick with a cough that produces phlegm, body aches and fever. I got a little bit freaked out about ARS so I went to get tested at the 3 week mark at the local county health services. The results were negative. It was the antigen test where they prick your finger and take blood samples. I also wanted to get your feedback if my symptoms are indicative or ARS.  I read that cough may or may not be a symptom of ARS and wanted clarification on this. Is my situation still considered low risk?

Welcome back to the Forum.  Thanks for the additional information and I'm sorry to hear of your respiratory tract infection.  It is not due to HIV however.  i  day this both because productive cough is NOT a sign of recently acquired HIV as well as the fact that if you had HIV, your HIV test would have been positive.   When persons with recently acquired HIV have symptoms, the tests are because of the presence of infection and tests are always positive.  Your negative test proves that your symptoms were not due to HIV.  ---

Hi Dr. Hook, I trust you're doing well.  I just did a follow up antibody HIV test at the local county health clinic and result is negative. This test puts me 6 weeks out from exposure. I'm assuming this test is definitive?

Yes, you can be confident of your test results.  Time to move forward. EWH---