My HIV partner....

Aug 17, 2008

So I am negative and he is positive. I just had a few questions, we we're having sex and the condom broke, but just as he put it in, so he never ejaculated i'm obviously gonna go get tested, how long should i wait to get tested to make sure the results will come back accurate? and also how does HIV become aids? and how long can a healthy HIV male live? i was reading its around 25 to 30 years after becoming positive is that true?

Response from Dr. Horwath

If you have the HIV antibody test 12 weeks or more after an exposure, then the result should be > 99% accurate. In this case, you're risk is lower because he did not ejaculate. In any case, if you use condoms during sex, you are well protected. You should continue to protect yourself with condoms as you have been doing.

In someone who is not in treatment, it takes an average of 10 years after the initial infection to develop symptoms. The diagnosis of AIDS requires an opportunistic infection or one of the other conditions included in the CDC case definition for AIDS or an HIV positive antibody test and CD4+ T-lymphocyte counts of less than 200 cells/uL or a CD4+ percentage of less than 14.

A healthy person with HIV can live for many years. There is no accurate way to predict because there are so many variables. But many people with HIV have lived >25 years. Since 1995, when HAART was introduced, the survival with HIV infection improved dramatically.