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Exposure to blood.

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Hello i just had a question about the posibility of me being positive after my exposure. First alittle background information on the exposure. I work in an emergency room and about 4 months ago i had a patient who was under the influence after a fight at a local bar come in with multiple large lacerations to the face and arms, and also this patient was bleeding from the nose. He got upset at the medical staff and tried to fight us, i ended up wrestling him to the ground and in the process got his blood all over my face in my eyes and my mouth.

I ended up getting tested immidiatly after this exposure and tested negative. At about 3 months post exposure i got some swollen lymph nodes under my jaw and in my neck, so I had a western blot test which came up negative aswell. The glands remain swollen and painfull so i had an HIV DNA test with another western blot test to confirm at alittle over 4 months post exposure, both were negative aswell.

So my question is this: is it possible to have all those tests be negative and still have HIV be the couse of the swollen lymph nodes? or should i be looking into another couse for the swollen lymph nodes? I understand that it may take up to 6 months for the virus to seroconvert and show up positive on a western blot, but the DNA test should show results after 28 days or so.

Any information would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance.
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replied October 21st, 2010
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/testing/reso urces/qa/index.htm

Not really sure why you paid for a hiv DNA test at 4 months, an antibody test is extremely accurate at this point. Standard is 98% of people will be positive after 3 months, and it is rare for people to show positive after 3 months. If I were you, relax, and wait til 6 months to be completely sure and take an antibody test, will probably be negative. By the way swollen lymph nodes can mean a lot of things, such as mono, so don't read into symptoms to try to diagnose HIV, testing is only way to be sure.
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