Expert: Terry B - 11/26/2009

Question
hello,  

i had an exposure to hiv with a SW  in bangalore 39 days back. the exposure was protected vaginal sex and unprotected cunnilingus and fallatio for about 15 sec each max. the mistake i did was to brush and clean my teeth and tongue before cunnilingus and i am uncircumcised. after about 10 days i started getting rashes in my genital region. so took a proviral pcr dna test on 18 day which came back not detected. now from 15th day to 31 day i had no symptoms, then my neck lymp nodes started to swell. on 36th day, consumed by extreme anxiety i confronted the SW and convinced her to take a hiv ag/ab combo cmia test which said non reactive with a value of 0.36. the logic behind this was if she is not infected then how the hell can i get infected as i am not at all sexually active. the question is can this 37 day combo test of the sw confirm that she is not hiv +.
2) is mt pcr dna test after 18 days reliable?
3)does my tooth brushing mistake before cunnilingus increase my risk??
3) is the combo test a reliable test? because the results came out in like one hour. is that possible??
anxiously waiting for ur reply.


Answer
Dear Deepak:

Peace and excuse the delay, I was out of town and could not access the internet as I had planned.  I think you need to see a doctor, not because I believe you are HIV infected, but because your symptoms suggest you have an infetion, probably not HIV but something that would benefit from treatment.

A negative PCR is more likely accurate than a positive one - it is sensitive test that is sometimes 10% false positive - but the probability is that if you are infected, it would have been reactive.

Go see your doctor.  Get diagnosed and treated for what you have, not for what you fear.  Tell your doctor everything so that he or she can provide the right tests and the right treatment.

Best to you and yours,

Terry