[Question #8787] HIV exposure
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39 months ago
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Had an hiv exposure 6.5 months ago. Had symptoms about 6 weeks after( feeling hot and cold, loss of appetite, night sweats). Have tested multiple times including HIV RNA PCR and 4th generation test all negative. Have had extreme anxiety and depression during this experience. Have had blood test and WBC and platelets are dropping. Not sure what to make of it.
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
39 months ago
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Welcome to our forum and thanks for your question. I’ll be glad to provide you with some information which I hope will help to address your anxiety and allow you to move forward knowing that you did not require HIV from the exposure 6.5 months ago that concerned you. Here are the reasons that I am confident you did not require HIV and that you can stop worrying:
1. You don’t provide any details about the exposure but there are no sexual exposures in which the risk of acquiring HIV following exposure to an untreated, HIV infected partner results in infection in more than one percent of exposed individuals, i.e. 99% of exposures do not result in transmission of HIV.
2. You indicate that you have been tested multiple times since exposure. I am confident that some of those tests were performed more than six weeks following exposure. If that is the case all tests performed after six weeks are conclusive and should be believed.
3. We received many questions person’s who experience flu like symptoms following a exposure of concern. Please note that careful scientific studies show that when at risk persons experience flu like symptoms over 99% of them are due to something other than HIV including influenza, COVID-19, other every day viral illnesses.
Obviously I cannot comment on your platelets or white blood cell but based on the facts that I provided above I can assure you they are not due to HIV.
I hope this information is helpful to you. If any part of my responses unclear or their further questions please use your update to follow ups for clarification. Take care. EWH
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39 months ago
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Sorry wasn’t sure how many words I would use so I kept it brief. To elaborate. Exposure happened in November. Symptoms started in December/ January and lasted a week or so. Light Night sweats. Feet sweating, insomnia, lost about 8 pounds. After about 2 weeks mostly returned to normal. Had HOV DNA RNA by PCR om January 20 and value was not detected. Had 4th generation test a week or so before this and was also negative. 6.5 months later still having sleep trouble and WBC and platelets dropping on CBC test. Have been tested for all other STDs and HIV rapid test as recently as this week and result was still negative. Is there any way it would turn positive in the future if my WBC continues to drop or am I jjust taking long long to develop antibodies? What are the chances I am hiv positive thank you for replying
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
39 months ago
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Thank you additional details. They confirm that there is no possible way that the flu like illness you experienced was due to HIV. Addition, your multiple tests of several different types serve to absolutely and incontrovertibly prove that you do not have HIV. If you continue to have a following white blood cell count or other health problems I urge you to work with your doctor to determine what is causing it. It is not HIV. EWH ---