this is not the the first time i ask question on this forum, but hope i would get the first response. on the 23rd of October i had a "very low risk" experinece in which i have kissed (casual) a woman after she had licked her finger whihc was inside her, and at that time i had chapped lips!!!. so far i did 5 tests, the latest was 30th of Janaury (99 days from exposure). my fear is that on the 12 of december i took an IV Iodine of 5.8mCi of 99mTC as i was diagonsed for Grave's disease and since then i was on Tapazole (antithyroid). i was wondering if any of that would affect the window period for HIV testing. today i am at week 16 after exposure. i can feel having swollen lymph and green/brown phlegm. i was wondering if that can be ARS. please let me know if i could have late seroconversion. plase note taht all test taken were Duo test 4th generation starting week 4). 2- what was the longest window period documented with the new test generation? is really the window period related to the test technique or to the person's response? Many thanks in advance.

Hi,

Your HIV risk is essentially nonexistent. Your five negative HIV tests out to 99 days are definitive and conclusive. Graves' disease, Tapazole and the recent tests using iodine would not affect the accuracy of your HIV-screening tests. Nor would it alter the window duration.

I don't know what the "longest window period documented with the new test generation" is. However, our guidelines have not changed. The time it takes to reach detectable levels of anti-HIV antibody in the blood (time to seroconversion) is related to both the type of testing assay and the host immune response.

The take-home message here is that HIV is not your problem. No way. No how!

Dr. Bob