I'm Rajesh and recently I had a brief encounter with a sex worker, but I used two condoms for protection. It happened on the 8th of June 2018, and about 26 days later, I went for an HIV duo 4th generation test, which came back negative with a result of 0.09. Lately, I've developed a cold, cough, and some throat pain that I think could just be due to the weather. Can I trust these test results and get back to my regular routine, or should I be concerned? I'm really anxious about this and could use some guidance.

Answered by 1 Apollo Doctors

Dr Shubham Chauhan

General Practitioner

MBBS
4+ Yrs

Consult Now

Hi Rajesh, based on your description, the HIV 4th generation test you took 26 days after exposure is highly reliable and indicates you are negative. Your symptoms are more likely due to weather changes and not related to HIV. You can continue with your regular life, but if you remain anxious, consider retesting at 6 weeks for complete peace of mind.

Dr. Shubham Suggests...

Consult a Infectious Disease specialist

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Answered 04/07/2025

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I'm really worried because I had unprotected oral sex with a commercial sex worker back in October 2020. Since then, Ive had persistent lymphadenopathy. I've taken numerous tests: HIV Tridot on December 6th came back negative, HIV ELISA on December 16th also negative. I had an HIV-1 RNA PCR test in the first week of January which was negative, and then HIV-2 RNA PCR and western blot on January 19th also negative. Even tests like the HIV duo on January 30th and western blot on February 10th were negative, and I did assessments at the 7-month mark including HIV duo, western blot, HIV qualitative RNA PCR, and ICTCall came back negative. Should I still be worried about HIV?

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