Question
My boyfriend just tested HIV-positive…
4 April 2008. Related: All topics, HIV testing, HIV transmission.
What are the chances that I will test positive for HIV?
My boyfriend and I have been dating for over 2 years. He recently tested positive for HIV. I made an appointment and got tested and I got a non reactive response. I still need to get tested 2 more times. My concern is that during the course of our relationship we barely used protection.
Answer
I’m sorry to hear about your boyfriends test results.
It is very good that your first test is negative, and there is a good chance that the test you take in 3 months times may be negative too. You will have to wait to find out, but in this case you may have been lucky.
If your boyfriend has been HIV-positive for a long time it is more likely your will be HIV-negative than if he only became positive in the last few months. This is because people are most infectious in early infection.
It is important that you use protection now, every time.
Your boyfriend will also need information and support, so please let us know if we can help with other questions.
You might find the question at this link useful.
Hi Gogo,
I’m sorry to hear about your recent diagnosis. Do you have any support to help you deal with this?
Unfortunately it’s not possible to tell from these test results when you were infected. Please see this similar question for more information.
Has your doctor spoken to you about starting treatment? Treatment is usually recommended for anybody with a CD4 count under 350.
I just find out I m HIV positive two weeks after I had my second result it is same positive and my cd4 count 235 and viral load is 49000 is this meen I had HIV for long time how can u tell some one how long they had it for.
The % count that the social worker talked about is also called CD4%. It is sometimes a more stable marker if there are unexpected changes in someone CD4 count.
There isn’t an exact conversion table between absolute CD4 count and CD4%. I’ve seen various estimates that suggest a CD4 count of 200, can be similar to a CD4% of anywhere between 12% and 20%.
In your boyfriends case, a CD4% of 11 just confirms that he is right to start treatment. His percentage is likely to rise more slowly that the CD4 count, but both should increase now he is one treatment.
An HIV-negative person usually has a CD4% of around 40%, while their CD4 count can be anything from 500-1600, so you can see there is a lot of variation, and the figures don;t match exactly.
Thanks again for your information. He has a social worker and when he was going over his results with me he also showed me a lymph % of 11, he then stated that anything under 14% is considered AIDS. Is this correct?
The term AIDS is not very useful and doesn’t tell you very much. It used to be used as a term for advanced HIV disease when there wasn’t treatment. ‘AIDS’ used to defined as having one of several serious illnesses, or a damaged immune system with a CD4 count less than 200.
Your boyfriend doesn’t have AIDS by this definition, and if his treatment works well it could prevent him from ever reaching advanced HIV disease.
Hello, thank you for your information.
I went to the doctors with my boyfriend and I found out that he has a CD4 count of 235 and a viral load of 100,000. He has started treatment. Does this means that he has now developed AIDS?