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White Blood Count Question
#201181 - 07/24/06 08:48 PM
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When you get a standard blood workup from the doctor and they say your white blood cell count is elevated would that correspond to a recent HIV exposure? I was not sure if an HIV exposure would cause a decreae in white blood cells or an increase. I realize that neither result would in any way indicate HIV directly, I just was curious how white blood cells react in a recent exposure.
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WBC most likely would be elevated with a recent infection. That said; elevated does not mean slightly above the normal ranges as stated on your CBC. You are correct when you say it is NOT a prime indicator of HIV infection. Get an anti-body test in 6 weeks to find out your status. D.J.
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White blood cell counts will generally be lower with an HIV infection/ARS. White blood cell counts are generally elevated for most other infections such as mono. Below is a link to an ask the expert question that states this:
http://www.thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Infections/Archive/BasicInformation/Q56633.html
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I think yo should re-read your link. WBC on many occations are elevated during initial infection. Not always but more often than not. D.J.
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http://www.thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Women/Archive/WomenInfected/Q155092.html
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Sounds like Dr. Bob says white blood cell counts are not predictive of HIV infection so that might be the best answer:
http://www.thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/SafeSex/Archive/Infected/Q175363.html
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What Happens Inside the Body?
Once HIV enters the human body, it attaches itself to a White Blood Cell (WBC) called CD4. Also, called T4 cells, they are the main disease fighters of the body. Whenever there is an infection, CD4 cells lead the infection-fighting army of the body to protect it from falling sick. Damage of these cells, hence can affect a person's disease-fighting capability and general health.
After making a foothold on the CD4 cell, the virus injects its RNA into the cell. The RNA then gets attached to the DNA of the host cell and thus becomes part of the cell's genetic material. It is a virtual takeover of the cell. Using the cell's division mechanism, the virus now replicates and churns out hundreds of thousands of its own copies. These cells then enter the blood stream, get attached to other CD4 cells and continue replicating. As a result, the number of the virus in the blood rises and that of the CD4 cells declines.
Because of this process, immediately after infection, the viral load of an infected individual will be very high and the number of CD4, low. But, after a while, the body's immune system responds vigorously by producing more and more CD4 cells to fight the virus. Much of the virus gets removed from the blood. To fight the fast-replicating virus, as many as a billion CD4 cells are produced every day, but the virus too increases on a similar scale. The battle between the virus and the CD4 cells continues even as the infected person remains symptom-free.
As one can see the body is very complicated. This does say they drop, then raise. I know of seveal instances where wbc were elevated. Also if the sleem is enlarged they would be low. So I gues both are correct.
Bottom line; they ARE NOT AN INDICATOR OF HIV INFECTION GET A TEST. D.J.
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Shut up D.J., you don't know what your talking about. Your WBC is always low with HIV. It goes very low when first infected then could go back to normal or could always stay low. I guess you know more than the doctors on this site.
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catou
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Reged: 07/06/06
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Posts: 13
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Loc: Ontario, Canada
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My boyfriend went to the hospital during his accute symptoms about 4 weeks after infection and his blood test showed low WBC.
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Shut up D.J., you don't know what your talking about. <<<<<<<<<
another hero post nonsense. read the post dilbert. for you to say "always" shows you lack of knowledge concerning to human body. As far as the shut up comment, I don't think so.
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D.J.
Why do you think that you can give people advise that directly goes against what all the doctors say for example the wbc count? How long have you had a medical degree?
You will so quickly state that it can go up but I have yet to see anything written that states it goes high, all the info I read is the wbc is low or sometimes normal, let me ask you this......... what is your wbc? I bet you it's not high!
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SteveR
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Legend
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Reged: 07/19/05
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Posts: 576
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Sometimes they go down (as they often do in viral infections). Sometimes they're within the normal range. You really can't tell anything about your HIV status from a standard CBC or white cell count.
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If you would read the post I posted it speaks for itself. Try not to get to emotional it looks bad. Seems like you have an agenda. My posts speek for themselves. If you disagree then ignor them. Some folks get help from them for they are based in facts. So re-read the post I cut and pasted and please become less personal when you disagree. D.J.
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D.J,
I read thru all the posts regarding the wbc issue, not one or anything from the docs that are pasted on this issue say that the wbc is high. One says that she has never seen a case where the wbc is high and lymphs are low, it not what HIV does. The other doc clearly states that the wbc is low, period end of story. You ask people to re-read, re-read what? Why are you telling people that it can be high when HIV will make your wbc low? As the anon asked what would your wbc be? If your going to throw out incorrect info then you need to back it up.
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