Getting an HIV diagnosis should be\u00a0very accurate because\u00a0all positive results on the first test should be confirmed with a second type of laboratory HIV test (called western blot).<\/p>\n
So long as you had this second confirmatory test the chance of not being positive is close to zero. It would only be explained, for example, if your results were mixed up with\u00a0someone else’s blood sample.<\/p>\n
However, we do occassionally hear of circumstances where the confirmatory second test has not been carried out. This is very bad practice and the second test (called western blot) should be run whenever this is discovered to have happened.<\/p>\n
No-one should routinely start HIV treatment (ART) without having had a confirmatory western blot HIV test.<\/p>\n
Enlarged lymph nodes are fairly common\u00a0among people living with HIV and if is continues is called ‘persistant generalised lymphadenopathy’ (PGL).<\/p>\n
The strict diagnosis of PGL requires you to have swollen glands in two or more parts of the body outside the groin, such as the neck and armpits, for three months or longer. It is thought to be an indication that the immune system is fighting back against HIV.<\/p>\n
PGL does not seem to have any particular value in predicting how HIV will progress; people who develop PGL seem to do no better but no worse than people who do not.<\/p>\n
Some people with HIV develop OIs without ever having PGL, while in others the PGL may start to shrink just before an opportunistic infection occurs.<\/p>\n
Your risk of catching a cold is not affected by your HIV diagnosis – the risk are the same as for an HIV-negative person.<\/p>\n
HIV positive people are advised to have an annual ‘flu jab as ‘flu is more serious if your immune system is already damaged. If your CD4 count is very low the vaccine is less likely to work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Can HIV be confused with some other illness?<\/p>\n
I ask, because I`ve been HIV-positive for 5 years and have been taking medications for 5 years without a problem at all. In fact haven’t had cold or flu for 2 years.<\/p>\n
I`ve read people`s questions on here and wonder, I`ve had enlarged lymph glands since I was 13, had a biopsy on one in my neck, which came back ok. I am 27 and they are still there: neck, throat, armpits, and groin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,26,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-topics","category-living-with-hiv-long-term","category-opportunistic-infections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}