tested positive but DH negative

[ims0rrydarlingg]

DH came home from work on Monday with some sniffles. Tuesday morning felt a bit rough also with a cough but worked from home. Weds felt worse with a cough, sneezing, slight tightness in chest but no temperature. No improvement since.

I have had a sore throat since yesterday, no other symptoms.

We both sent our tests off yesterday and had the results emailed to us. His came back negative around 10pm and mine came back positive around 11pm.

Just slightly confused by it. We will both continue to self isolate regardless.

I'd get him retested. Sometimes you get false negatives for various reasons.

He may not have done a good swab.

Hope you're both feeling better soon.

If you haven't got an oximeter I'd get one. No need to pay more than £25 on Amazon. But good to keep an eye on stats silent hypoxia is a serious issue with covid.

I'm a contact advisor and regularly speak to people in the same house where one is positive and one isn't. Maybe he could do another test but he should be isolating for 10 days anyway. If he does another test he needs to do it ASAP as it ideally needs to be no more than 5 days after symptoms starting

I know of 2 couples where one has tested positive and the other negative.

Both the negative ones re-tested and were still negative and perfectly fine.

The only tenuous link is that both the negatives were smokers and their partner's weren't, so I'm wondering if there's some truth in it when they say Covid is harder for smokers to catch.

@WorraLiberty - the smoker thing is interesting. DH is a smoker and I’m not.

Funnily enough, I was positive and DH who is a smoker tested negative, and a month later is still fine

Harvard Medical School did a research study on the correlation between blood type and covid infection. The finding was that blood type didn't make a difference in severity but blood type O tends to test negative.

"An intriguing finding from the study was that there appeared to be a greater chance of people with blood types B and AB who were Rh-positive testing positive for the virus. Even stronger evidence was assembled by the team that symptomatic people with blood type O were less likely to test positive."

Ive recently isolated in a household with 2 confirmed positives, I got tested as i had a slight cough and negative. My DS was also negative. Who knows why some people dont seem to contract it. You need to isolate 10 days from when his symptoms started

My friend tested positive and partner didn't. Whole house isolated. Friend definitely had symptoms, breathing and chest pains but otherwise mild. Their partner did another test at day 9 and still came back negative.
Important all isolate though as never know. Can be asymptotic and still be infectious to others. Just never know

As he has those symptoms, I would assume it’s a false negative. Maybe being a smoker impacts the test???

It’s estimated that 1 in 5.5 (18%) tests are false negatives. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7552113/

I'd assume it's a false negative in this situation. If he had symptoms from Monday but only tested on Friday then that's nearly 5 days already, a bad swab coupled with lower infectivity could easily lead to a false negative. He should have tested earlier in the week ideally.

DH ill and positive. I had low level sniffles, tested negative. Tested again a few days later, still negative.

It happens and clearly not everyone will get the virus despite being in close contact with a positive person coughing all over them which was my situation.

I think people forget that anyone could've had it at any point and been asymptomatic and built up immunity. There is nothing to say that your husband hasn't had it at some point, nobody knew and he is therefore protected

I was in very close sustained contact with a positive person, who was symptomatic and I didn't get it. I'm still so confused. My blood type is AB+ so surely I should've caught it?

DS had a positive test before Xmas. I tested negative twice-day 3 and day 8 despite feeling a bit off. No one else in the house got symptoms either. I reckon we have had it before.

My wife tested positive back in November and i tested negative!

The smoking thing is interesting, im a smoker and wife is not

There's a much higher false negative rate for the swab in real life conditions (something like 20%), especially because it's not that easy to get the swabbing right. Entirely possible that he was positive - or if not, that he actually had an unrelated cold and just hasn't caught it from you (yet).

If you want, you could both do an antibody test in a few months to get some.more.evidence.

My friend had it (caught at work) but her DH who is diabetic and sleeps in the same bed, didn’t get it.

The smoking thing really is interesting then, as a few have mentioned the same thing here.

I remember back in March/April reading that the French were looking into it and were due to do a study by giving nicotine patches to those who wanted to take part. I've Googled but can't find any more about it.

We already know from many threads and reseaech that not everybody in the same household will have Covid.

My son had Covid and was symptomatic. The other three of us did not get it (as far as we know!)

My husband tested positive. I didn't test as didn't have the testable symptoms but have since tested negative for antibodies. He isolated from us after his test result but we had been in close contact whilst he was symptomatic.

I can see why you are confused, given that your DH is the one with CV symptoms. Are you absolutely certain you can't have mixed up the tests? If you are sure, your options are to assume who does have it or get a repeat test sent to your home. False negatives do happen.

Posters are correct that it doesn't necessarily spread around households, I tested positive and my dh remained asymptomatic (we followed the guidelines and didn't get him tested as he had no CV symptoms). But your situation is different in that it is your DH who actually has the symptoms, not you, so I would retest.

One DC and me - positive; DH and other DC negative.

I had the most pronounced symptoms - though two of the main ones didn't kick in until after I got a positive result.

But all of us had symptoms like, tummy upset, shocking headaches, nausea and deep fatigue.

I actually made DH get another test because his symptoms were persisting and getting worse (and I wasn't sure if he messed the test up) - though he never got any of the three. Still negative. TBH he's well versed in the 'dressing gown of doom/ shuffling round the house' thing, so not sure how bad his symptoms really are. But both children certainly looked and felt dreadful at certain points. I've made sure we've all isolated.

I know of another household where the wife tested positive in September, the DH did not. Now in January he's tested positive, she's fine. But they both have to isolate again.

The blood type group ref above would certainly fit in our household.

Interesting thoughts about blood type etc.
Dp tested positive 3 days ago, I've isolated him in his own room and taken meals etc to him- myself and DS isolating in the house/ garden too, but separately from him.
When should I let him out of his 'cage' lol I've heard you're not necessarily infectious for days on end- but I really want to avoid getting it too esp when we have a child to care for.
Have you all isolated the positive partner in their own space?

@Moonsbury

Interesting thoughts about blood type etc. Dp tested positive 3 days ago, I've isolated him in his own room and taken meals etc to him- myself and DS isolating in the house/ garden too, but separately from him. When should I let him out of his 'cage' lol I've heard you're not necessarily infectious for days on end- but I really want to avoid getting it too esp when we have a child to care for. Have you all isolated the positive partner in their own space?

Didn't isolate from DH. I figured by the time we had the positive result there would have been no point.