Dear Doctor,

I am writing regarding a possible HIV contagion.
On 4th April 2014 I experienced a risky sex situation (low risk I think): I masturbated myself in front of a girl that was doing the same (professional sex worker). There was absolutely no direct contact between our genitals. But at the end she passed me an handkerchief with her hands to clean up myself and this had a quick contact with my penis. At the moment I was not worried given there was not direct contact between genitals.

Unfortunately about 5 weeks later I experienced sore throat for 4/5 days and low fever (37.3) for a few hours one night. I connected these symptoms with the previous situation and started panicking.

At almost 6 weeks after the risky situation (symptoms were almost away) I did an ELISA combined p24 test. One day after they called me to repeat the exam, telling me that final results would have been ready one week later.

One week later they told me that my first ELISA test was a false positive (also p24 index was above normal level). In fact, after the first result, they performed:
- Western Blot: negative
- p24 antigen (with another reagent): negative
- viral load HIV1: undetectable (<40 copies/mL)
- Normal CD3, CD4 and CD8 levels

The doctor told me that my recent flu had probably influenced the ELISA.

Do you agree with him?

Many thanks for your help!