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The participation of Dr. McGovern in this Forum is made possible in part by an independent educational grant from Roche Laboratories.
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HCV Testing
Apr 13, 2008

I had an oral sex encounter with someone whose HCV status was unknown. Within a week I felt symptoms that could be attributed to HCV. I had a quantitative PCR test (sensitive to 50 copies) 2 weeks after the encounter that was negative, then an Elisa test and LFT test 1 month after (all negative, normal) and then another PCR test 6 weeks (sensitve to 10 copies) after that was negative. Is this testing complete to rule out HCV? I'm HIV positive. Thanks for the time you give.

Response from Dr. McGovern

HCV transmission sexually is much less common than that seen in injection drug users. It does occur though in the setting of traumatic sex or in the setting of other ulcerative STDs. Both of these settings increase the risk of blood to blood exposure. This has been described in several reports in men who have sex with men. However, oral sex would not prompt me to have concerns about a possible HCV exposure.



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