HIV Testing

[havana]

It is alright, my son.....
U r forgiven

Just tell her u want to refrain from sex till she give birth, cause u love her and do not want to injure her and the unborn child.

[bedtime-stories]

Originally Posted by repent2009

every minute spent looking at my wife makes me realize how much i love her and how guility and remorse i am for putting her and our baby at risk. I pray everyday that nothing happens to them and let everything come to me instead. Everyday is a painful wait for results. Results for STDs and waiting for the 3 month mark for the dreadful HIV test. I had nightmare every night and have to cry quietly by the side of my wife, controlling and not letting her find out. I kept imagining her crying and asking me why did I do this to her. I don't think I can live on if I lose her.

bro..u got to get a grip on yrself..wake up..dont fall back liao..now is not the time to be negative..think positively n get yr usual self back..u r letting your imagination getting the better of u..if u dont wan lose anything now u got to stay awake n think of other daily issues..days n weeks past very quickly..dont worry too much n look on the bright side..

[bedtime-stories]

Originally Posted by havana

It is alright, my son.....
U r forgiven

Just tell her u want to refrain from sex till she give birth, cause u love her and do not want to injure her and the unborn child.

oh...GOD.......u r finally here.. haha..jus tell yr wife u read up on some antenatal books that first few mths should not have too much sexual intercourse,once cross 3-5mth time than shd be ok liao..so cheer up..btw "GOD" have already forgiven u so u shd feel that bit better..

[max1970]

If this situation is troubling you this much and your love for her is as deep as you experience it 'now' then just open-up and tell her. It's a risk but then again you have to ask yourself who you are and what you want in your life..but above all if you can live with yourself? You need to search within yourself cause that's where the answer lies..not in denial..it'll resurface again some other day.

But be sure of one thing..if everything goes smoothly and you have a wonderful kid...don't go mess things up again for the 'old-times-sake-one-more-go' BS!

Best Wishes

[repent2009]

thanks all bros for the advice and kind words.

Just got results for all the test I have done, all negative. Counting the days for 2rd month to test for HIV, syphilis and herpes again. then the 3rd month and then once every month till the 6th month. I pray everyday that everything will be ok for my wife and baby. If anything will to happen, let them happen to me.

just saw this website Singapore HIV Aids screening testing clinic that they can do hiv test earlier without the 3 or 6 months window. any bros tried it before?

[ptgary]

Originally Posted by repent2009

thanks all bros for the advice and kind words.

Just got results for all the test I have done, all negative. Counting the days for 2rd month to test for HIV, syphilis and herpes again. then the 3rd month and then once every month till the 6th month. I pray everyday that everything will be ok for my wife and baby. If anything will to happen, let them happen to me.

just saw this website Singapore HIV Aids screening testing clinic that they can do hiv test earlier without the 3 or 6 months window. any bros tried it before?

I don't think their PCR test is 100% reliable. There have been cases of false negatives when the technique was used in other countries.

[Wtapss]

Originally Posted by ptgary

I don't think their PCR test is 100% reliable. There have been cases of false negatives when the technique was used in other countries.

For PCR test , HIV 1 testing available with 12 days window period after exposure. The Clinic here is using Roche HIV1 monitor . I believed that this test is more accurate as blood will be send to lab test under advance medical equipment testing from your DNA. Btw , it can only detect HIV1 virus and not HIV2 virus as the testing is using 'Roche HIV1 monitor" I did a test last year on the 13 days of exposure and the result is negative for HIV1. The cost of the testing is $600 and blood test will be done hospital . So , this test is not anonymous.

[JingJing]

HIV mutates at high speed to avoid immune system: study

PARIS (AFP) - - A worldwide team of scientists said the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was swiftly evolving to avoid the body's immune defences, a phenomenon that adds to the challenge of crafting an AIDS vaccine.

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Mutations in HIV enable it to rapidly sidestep genetic variations that offer a better natural shield against the deadly pathogen, they said in a study released by the journal Nature.

"Even in the short time that HIV has been in the human population, it is doing an effective job of evading our best efforts at natural immune control of the virus," said Oxford University researcher Philip Goulder.

"This is high-speed evolution that we're seeing in the space of just a couple of decades."

Goulder's team analysed the genetic codes and viral strain of 2,800 infected people in North America, the Caribbean, Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Australia and Japan.

Their big focus was on so-called human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes.

These control specialised proteins whose job is to act as a signaller against intruders. The proteins present little pieces of HIV to the body's heavy armour, T cells, which then seek out the virus and kill it.

Since HIV was identified as the cause of AIDS, more than a quarter of a century ago, doctors have learnt that even though no-one appears to be naturally immune to the virus, people progress to the full-blown disease at different rates.

Without antiretroviral drugs, some individuals may develop AIDS as little as a year after infection, while others take as long as two decades.

The span depends largely on inherited luck, for there are variants of HLA genes that are far better at combatting HIV than others. A tiny difference in DNA can make a huge difference in holding back the virus.

Goulder's team came across some bad news.

They found that the virus is able to mutate when facing the more successful variants of these genes.

This "escape mutation" is then transmitted on to the viral progeny and then handed on to the human population when another person becomes infected.

"Where a favourable HLA gene is present at high levels in a given population, we see high levels of the mutation that enable HIV to resist this particular gene effect," said co-author Rodney Phillips in a press release issued by Oxford University.

"The virus is outrunning human variation, you might say."

The study adds a further complexity in the quest for an HIV vaccine, say the authors.

Vaccine engineers will have to wrestle with different "escape mutations" in HIV that exist in distinct pools of populations.

For instance, a highly favourable variant of HLA is called HLA-B*51. It is common among people in Japan -- and, as a result, two-thirds of infected people there have a strain of HIV which features the "escape mutation" for this variant.

In Britain and Africa, though, HLA-B*51 is far less common. As a result, only between 15 to 25 percent of HIV-infected people have the "escape mutation" in their version of the virus.

So it means that a successful HIV vaccine may have to take these geographical differences into account, as well as the stealthy, slippery mutability of the virus itself.

"The implication is that once we have found an effective vaccine, it would need to be changed on a frequent basis to catch up with the evolving virus, much like we do today with the flu vaccine," said Goulder.

AIDS first emerged in 1981 as a novel disease that destroys immune cells, exposing the body to opportunistic infections. HIV was identified as its source in 1983. Twenty-five million people have died of AIDS and an estimated 33 million people have HIV.

The new paper focuses only on HIV's ability to sidestep natural immune systems. It did not address the virus' mutability towards anti-HIV drugs.