Topic: If Malaria can cause false neg HIV tests, can Babesia? Is IDSA worried about this?
AliG
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9734
posted
I googled "false negative WB" the other day & came up with a bunch of studies showing that Malaria can cause false-negative HIV tests. This made me think of someone I know.
Some 18 years ago, this person had been Dxd with HIV & AIDS, after 1 yr of Lyme Tx failed, and has been being Txd for HIV/AIDS and "miraculously" surviving for over 18 years now. At that time I don't believe they knew about Babesia & how it effects Lyme recovery.
Any time this person gets a cold, they recover very quickly (faster than I could).
Every time their T-cell count drops below 200 (I believe indicating AIDS), prophylactic Mepron is given to prevent PCPneumonia. The T-cell count comes right back up after a couple of months on Mepron.
I believe that HIV was a standard rule-out back then, when Lyme Tx failed. If there were IDSA guidelines, at that time, leading to misdiagnoses (& misTx) of patients with what was, for many years, horribly stigmatic disease, what would happen if those responsible for those guidelines were exposed?
Could there be many people out there who were wrongly Dxd with HIV after failing to recover from Lyme after 1 yr, because they also had Babesia?
Just thinking on the keyboard.........
BTW - This persons ID had dismissed my Sx as "somatoform" (5-6 yrs ago?) with known, previously ignored, tick bite without testing for one single TBD. He suggested that I perhaps seek "alternative therapies". He was a fellow of ILADS, at the time. Some time thereafter, he became a fellow of IDSA.
I just inquired of him as to the possibility of Lyme/Babs resulting in HIV false positive. I am informed that it was impossible in this person's case. I am told that he has had the all the symptoms that are seen with HIV.
I asked if they would be similar to the Sx seen with Lyme & Babesiosis. He said not at all. I explained that I have been doing quite a bit of research into the Sx for TBDs & that I have seen pretty much ALL of these Sx progressing over time in this person.
I believe he attributed much of the neurological/cognitive issues to "old age". The neuropathies he attributed to the heavy medications that he was on, early in his Tx.
If this doctor did not attribute my Sx to TBDs, I sincerely doubt that he would recognize them in someone else. The transition from ILADS to IDSA would tell me that he does not take Lyme Disease seriously & likely subscribes to the "one pill cure" theory.
I would love to have an ID who has a thorough understanding of BOTH HIV/AIDS & TBDs give a second opinion.
[ 15. February 2008, 10:38 AM: Message edited by: AliG ]
-------------------- Note: I'm NOT a medical professional. The information I share is from my own personal research and experience. Please do not construe anything I share as medical advice, which should only be obtained from a licensed medical practitioner. Posts: 4881 | From Middlesex County, NJ | Registered: Jul 2006
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JRWagner
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
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Lyme will not turn into HIV. It simply can not.
HIV is a virus. Lyme is a spirochetal gram-negative bacteria, and malaria (and babesia) are protozoa infections.
Co-infections may exist, but one cannot turn into the other.
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[ 15. February 2008, 12:36 AM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
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About false tests - just repeat the test - several times if you want to be sure.
Also know that HIV may not test accurate for a certain time after exposure so possible false negatives should be rechecked as per doctor's advice.
I see no more stigma to HIV than to any other illness. But, then, my mother died from HIV in 1984, two years after transfusions. I saw no stigma, just ignorance. We all still have much to learn.
I see more stigma about lyme than about HIV, actually, here is my little corner.
Report of a False-Positive HIV Test Result and the Potential Use of Additional Tests in Establishing HIV Serostatus
Eleftherios Mylonakis, MD; Maria Paliou, MD; Thomas C. Greenbough, MD; Timothy P. Flaningan, MD; Norman L. Letvin, MD; Josiah D. Rich, MD, MPH
Arch Intern Med. 2000;160:2386-2388.
Considering the lifelong implications of a positive human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) test result, physicians should be aware of the limitations of tests for HIV.
A 43-year-old man had a reactive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and an indeterminate result on Western blot analysis.
The results of subsequent enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Western blot tests were interpreted as positive, and the patient was informed that he had HIV infection.
Persistently undetectable plasma HIV-1 RNA, combined with normal physical examination findings, CD4+ cell count, and CD4/CD8 ratio, prompted further testing, which revealed that the patient was not infected with HIV.
False-positive HIV test results are uncommon, but they can occur. In the appropriate clinical setting, follow-up and the use of other laboratory tests, such as determination of plasma viral load, may help identify such cases.
- authors at link
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[ 15. February 2008, 01:57 AM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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AliG
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9734
posted
Sorry guys!
I tried to clean up my earlier post & add some more details, in the hope of making SOME sense.
When I read it back myself, I couldn't even make sense of it.
Keebler,
Thanks so much for the incredibly NOBLE effort to make sense of what I had written.
I do believe that there have been times when this person's "viral load" was elevated, so not likely a mis-Dx?
I just want to "save" everyone I know that is ill. I hate to watch people suffer & deteriorate will illness. Perhaps it was just wishful thinking on my part. Though, I am also told that surviving into his 70s with his disease is pretty much unheard of.
I WOULD still like to get another opinion, as I seem to recall having heard that it WAS thought possible, that people may harbor HIV at undetectable levels until ??? (perhaps some other stress to the immune system? I don't recall what the trigger was thought to have been). Whatever I had heard, it was a long, long time ago & may have been disproven by now.
I just want to "save the world". Is that REALLY too much to expect of myself?
[ 15. February 2008, 12:31 PM: Message edited by: AliG ]
-------------------- Note: I'm NOT a medical professional. The information I share is from my own personal research and experience. Please do not construe anything I share as medical advice, which should only be obtained from a licensed medical practitioner. Posts: 4881 | From Middlesex County, NJ | Registered: Jul 2006
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JRWagner
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 3229
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