I posted 6 weeks ago; Anxiety, PEP and testing (Thank you again Dr Sean for your responses, they were very assuring at a difficult time).
A quick summary - I had unprotected insertive vaginal sex without ejaculation with a woman on unknown HIV status in South Arfica. I was put on triple therapy PEP after 32 hours.
Firstly the good news is that i took a PCR DNA test and DUO test 7 days after PEP completion and both were non reactive!
My doctor said that the PCR DNA test would find any trace of the HIV in my system and the fact it is non reactive means i am HIV negative. He said an ELISA test at 3 months is just a formality, and in practical terms i am negative despite what the official global guidelines state.
Would you agree with his analysis of the scenario? Esepcially taking in to account the DUO test i also took, which i believe you have never seen turn from negative to positive after PEP?
However, i am still slightly anxious about the situation (probably with all the goggle searching and self diagnosing of lymph nodes despite having a cold and been told they are due to a viral throat infection!)
Therefore i am going to take a DUO test 28 days after PEP which is in a weeks time. Is the accuracy of the test the same as if its taken 28 days after exposure? i.e. 99.89% and therefore 'conclusive' and if negative i can put this all behind me and move on??
I would entirely agree with your doctor that the tests you have had rule out HIV. The development of consensus guidelines takes a long time, there are new developments all the time and they are diffcilut to keep up with in a committee environment - hence the statement that the guidelines are a formality.
I think having a repeat HIV DUO at 28 days will confirm what you already know - that you are indeed HIV negative.
Thank you for your reply. It is of huge relief to know my test results are accurate.
As the 28 day post pep duo test will just be confirming my negative status, would you conclude that it is the last test I need to take?
Testing after PEP
Linear Mode
