Hi, I had a exposure which was high risk. Please believe me when I say high risk and then every symptom in the book for HIV. All of them with consistent timing which made me believe I acquired the virus. Now the confusing part is in seven months I’ve had 13 tests which include 6 HIV Ab/ag fourth generation tests, one western blot at 6 months, 4 NAAT tests for HIV 1 at 10,80,180 and 210 days post exposure and 2 NAAT tests for HIV2 at 180 and 210 days post exposure. I know that 13 tests in 7 months sounds excessive but could all these tests by any chance miss an infection. I think these are all the type of tests available for this virus. I don’t see any other tests available. What are the chances that all these test miss an infection. I’ve been tested for all other STD’s at appropriate times as well. My symptoms still persist. All tests are negative.

Home / Answered Questions / Hi, I had a exposure which was high risk. Please believe me when I say high risk and then every symptom in the book for HIV. All of them with consistent timing which made me believe I acquired the virus. Now the confusing part is in seven months I’ve had 13 tests which include 6 HIV Ab/ag fourth generation tests, one western blot at 6 months, 4 NAAT tests for HIV 1 at 10,80,180 and 210 days post exposure and 2 NAAT tests for HIV2 at 180 and 210 days post exposure. I know that 13 tests in 7 months sounds excessive but could all these tests by any chance miss an infection. I think these are all the type of tests available for this virus. I don’t see any other tests available. What are the chances that all these test miss an infection. I’ve been tested for all other STD’s at appropriate times as well. My symptoms still persist. All tests are negative.

Hi, I had a exposure which was high risk. Please believe me when I say high risk and then every symptom in the book for HIV. All of them with consistent timing which made me believe I acquired the virus. Now the confusing part is in seven months I’ve had 13 tests which include 6 HIV Ab/ag fourth generation tests, one western blot at 6 months, 4 NAAT tests for HIV 1 at 10,80,180 and 210 days post exposure and 2 NAAT tests for HIV2 at 180 and 210 days post exposure. I know that 13 tests in 7 months sounds excessive but could all these tests by any chance miss an infection. I think these are all the type of tests available for this virus. I don’t see any other tests available. What are the chances that all these test miss an infection. I’ve been tested for all other STD’s at appropriate times as well. My symptoms still persist. All tests are negative.

I think that it is unlikely that these tests missed a HIV infection. We find that the 4th generation antibody/antigen HIV test would pick up most HIV infections by 6 weeks and give you a final result by 3 months. It seems like you had testing done after 3 months which would indicate that HIV was not passed to you.

It can certainly get really scary when you have a high risk encounter and then you get HIV seroconversion symptoms. It is common for us to see this in the clinic were this happens and the HIV test is negative. It is a good reminder for us that the HIV seroconversion symptoms are just general symptoms that can be caused by many different conditions.

As you are still having the symptoms I would recommend seeing a health care professional for further investigation to the cause. It can sometimes take a bit of time to work out what is causing the problem but at least you know it is not HIV causing the problem. If someone was getting symptoms related to HIV the viral load would be very high and a HIV NAAT test would also pick that up.

Let us know if this does not answer your question or if you have any more questions or concerns.

Health Nurse

This answer was posted on July 1, 2018.

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