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Quey about risk of HIV transmission following unprotected intercourse.

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About two years ago I had unprotected vaginal intercourse. I hate to sound prejudiced, but it was with a girl that I'd consider to be at high risk of having and STD. About two weeks after the encounter, I developed the worst sore throat of my life, hives all over my upper body and face and headache, all of which lasted about 2-3 days. At the time I passed it off as a harmless infection; about 1 year later I read that those symptoms are textbook seroconversion symptoms. About 15 months after the encounter, I had HIV, Hepatitis, STD and a bunch of other standard blood tests done. What scared me is that I went back to my doctor 4 business days later to get the results and all of the blood test results were back from the lab except for the HIV test; I could help but think it was positive and the result wasn't back because they were still doing confirmatory testing. The result ended up being negative. I had another HIV test done about 4 months later, which also came back negative. I'm not sure exactly which tests were used by the lab, but I'm pretty sure the testing's done by the BC CDC (Canada).

As for symptoms, I've been having recent sinus problems. I've felt congested constantly for the past couple months and sometimes when I blow my nose in the morning I have bloody mucus. I also had nights sweats 2-3 times about a month or two ago although I think they were pretty mild; I didn't wake up completely drenched in sweat, I just had damp hair and a damp pillowcase from sweating. I've also been having dark/strong odored urine. I saw a doctor about this problem and he found that I had elevated creatinine and it was almost certainly due to not drinking enough water, but I thought I'd include it in here anyways.

My question is how likely is it that I am infected and just tested negative. I can't stop thinking about the symptoms that I had after the encounter; could they be due to another infection? I can't stop thinking about this and I'm starting to wonder if I need psychiatric help.

Category: HIV- AIDS Specialist

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Category: HIV- AIDS Specialist
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Hello,

Thank you for choosing DoctorSpring.

You have two negative HIV tests and you do not have any defining symptoms of HIV. HIV tests has come a long way and two negative test results practically means you are 100% negative. So I do not think you need to be worried about HIV at all.

HIV infection may go undetected in tests for 4-5 weeks (at max 3-4 months). But a test done after 1 year will be invariable positive (unless you have sever immune suppression ). So you should consider yourself lucky for not getting STDs from a risky unprotected encounter.

As I said your symptoms are not specific for HIV. The sinus problems could be allergic or from a bacterial sinusitis. The mild sweating is of no concern. However the high colour urine and raised creatinine is something you will need to followup. Again this is nothing related to HIV, but you will need to get a urine routine examination and S. Creatinine and Blood Urea levels to know how the current values are.

Hope this helps
You can get back to me anytime for clarifications / followups
Thank you


Patient replied :

Thank you for the quick reply, I found it very comforting and I will be sure not to make this mistake again in the future. I just have two follow up questions:

The early symptoms I described (sore throat, hives) - Is there anything else I should be concerned about or would they most likely just be from something harmless?

As for the urine routine exam and Creatinine & Blood Urea tests, when would be a good time to follow up with the doctor? When I saw the doctor about the high Creatinine levels, he said he was convinced they would return to normal if I started drinking more water but he never told to come back for a follow up. How long should I wait before going back for a follow up? Or how long would it take creatinine levels to return to normal if that was the cause?

Thank You!


The early symptoms could be due to viral infection / flu or an allergy, not HIV seroconversion illness in light your negative HIV tests.

S. Creatinine would return normal within 2 weeks if the elevated values were due to decreased water intake. I think you were having a value which was within normal range , but in a higher normal range. If it was a really elevated value your Doctor would have gone for further tests. Anyway if you do not know the values you can go for a repeat tests as soon so as possible.

You can also get back to me with the values.

Thank you


Patient replied :

Sorry for the late reply. I went to the doctor a couple weeks ago and he looked up the S. Creatinine value and did a routine urine test which came back clean. If I remember correctly the Creatinine level was 109(not sure what the units are, micromoles/L?). He said the same thing; the creatinine is still in the high normal range and the symptoms (side pain, dark urine) are most likely due to not drinking enough water. I'm supposed to drink more water until I go back in two weeks for my second round of Hep B vaccine and follow up then.

I still have one follow up question left on here so I though I may as well let you know about the test results.

Thanks!


Hello,

109 is unlikely to be Creatinine values . It is generally a single digit number (in both SI and traditional units). Any if the values is within normal limits nothing to worry. (High normal does not make any difference. It is still normal. That is the reason why we call it normal). Do update me with the results.

Thank you


Dr. Jaydeep Tripathy
Category: HIV- AIDS Specialist
Experience: 
MBBS from Sri Ramachandra University in December 2011
M.Med (Family Medicine) - TNMGR University, Chennai
MBA-MPH in Public Health in March 2016, SRM University
Finished AFIH in March 2016, SRM University
MRCP ( UK ), Internal Medicine, Royal College of Physicians, June 2016
Fellowship in Diabetology from Martin Luther University in January 2017

Currently Resident Physician, in MD Radiodiagnosis - Kamakshi Memorial Hospital, Chennai
Dr. Jaydeep Tripathy and 4 other Medical Specialists are ready to help you

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