Expert: Terry B - 4/1/2007

Question
I had a fling in mid-February with a prostitute in Asia. I had a small abrasion
on my penis during the intercourse. It was unprotected intercourse. About
three days later I had slight flu and diarrehea. Could not attribute this to my
eating outside or this incident. About two weeks later I had discharge which i
got treated. That was diagnosed as gonorrehea. Any rate, on early March,
about 24 days after incident, I had myself tested in hospital for HIV and
gonorrehea. My HIV test was negative. I also got treated for gonorrehea which
has since gone. I need to be retested again to be sure. I am planning on
taking test ( HIV) on April 5. That is about 51 days after incident. I still have
chills, but no loss in weight, no loss in appetite etc. I am checking my lymph
nodes often but perhaps I am amplifying everything I see.

My question: Will testing after 50 days give greater evidence that the test will
be correct? I understand it is not 100% like in 6 months or 95% like in 3
months but is there some probability. What test is more conclusive to reflect
whether I have HIV or not - seven weeks from the incident.

i am mentally very stressed out so please help.

Answer
Dear Aman:

Peace.  Sounds like you are on top of things.  The ELISA and Western Blot will not be as reliable as they would if you waited a bit, but the other tests you can take now have about a 10 percent rate of false positives.  A false positive test would stress you out more and for no good reason.

I would recommend the antibody (ELISA) test as if you are infected it might be reactive at this point; symptoms are not a good way to determine your HIV status.  

Hope this helps.

Peace and all good things to you and yours.

Terry