Question
I am newly diagnosed with HIV and have Behcet's disease?
30 September 2011. Related: All topics, Newly diagnosed.
recently tested positive for HIV. I am a little sceptical of the diagnosis because several years ago I was diagnosed with a rare auto-immune disease called Bechets. I’ve worked very hard to not be a sick person trying to eat healthy and exercise. My fatigue and joint pain has been consistent and has been escalating. I actually went to the doctor to talk about my worsening pain. I was surprised to get a positive HIV test result. The same day I had blood taken for the test I was give a Tdap vaccine and a flu vaccine. This was about 2 weeks ago.
I have just had my viral load and Tcell count taken and it was 650 and 1000 respectively. So there is a virus in me right?
Of course I am upset about being diagnosed with HIV but I am more concerned for my overall health. My doctor is not making any link with my previous condition, or the vaccines, and all of these test results. This HIV diagnosis has serious implications.
How can I be sure I’m not fighting something else that would also explain my previous symptoms. It seems a bit more logical to me.
Answer
From the information you included it sounds like you do have HIV. I’m sorry about this and I hope you are getting support to understand about this new aspect of your health.
Although there is not a lot of research about people with both HIV and Behcet’s disease, cases have been reported. The medical review at this link suggest that both infections is rare. It also comments that just because case are rare, this doesn’t mean there may not be a link – just that there is so little information to go on.
http://www.ima.org.il/imaj/ar06jul-19.pdf (PDF file)
Both your HIV doctor and Behcet’s doctor should talk to each other if there are problems (and if these are different people). HIV should always be treated by someone who has experience in treating HIV positive people, and this person may take a more detailed interest in your history.
Thanks for taking the time to follow up. That helps.
Hi
I read your first question to be asking whether you really have both HIV and Behcet’s? You seemed to be worried that one might affect the results of the test for the other.
I wanted the answer to show that I couldn’t find any evidence suggesting this and that both diagnoses are likely to be good. In looking for research on people with both HIV and Behcet’s this was sufficiently rare to only be able to say that there is too little research to say how they relate to each other.
Usually when someone has too different health complications, they want to know if there are special things to be careful about.
Given the rarity of both conditional together, it seems unlikely that there is a direct link. The causes are different. There is no reason why Behcets would have made you more vulnerable to HIV.
However, the researchers in the paper I linked to were writing from a scientific perspective. This means they couldn’t say either way if this happens or not. They were saying that they would need more research to comment either way,
when you say they don’t know if there is a link, what do you mean? how can there be a link? Are you saying that Bechets could possibly lead to HIV? Or that Bechets makes you more likely to get HIV? Can you please clarify. Thank you for your input.