Hello Drs. 

Welcome to our Forum and thanks for your questions.  I'll do my best to reassure you.  The encounter you describe was a no risk event.  HIV  is not transmitted through underwear, even when the cloth is wet with genital secretions.  Further, HIV and the most common STIs (gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomonas) are not transmitted through clothing or without penetration as well.  (FYI, ureaplasma is not considered an STI either- it is normally found in the genital tract where it is sometimes mistakenly thought to be an STI as well).  The exposure you describe is considered no risk by the CDC, the WHO and by experts in the field.  ---

Thank you for your reply and for your service. If for some reason he poked me just inside my vaginal lips opening area, not fully penetrating but possibly poking forcefully enough to reach the opening, is this still an unlikely route of transmission? Also, the fever has subsided after day 3 but today is day 6 and I still have the stuffy nose. I don’t feel any enlarged or painful lymph glands and never had a sore throat. My concern grew because I was in close proximity with friends some of them even drinking behind me and none of them got sick. If this were a real cold/flu, I should have been contagious. Right? Is the Ars rash all over or is it in one spot? This rash I have is about the size of a half dollar and localized to one side of my shoulder. Thank you again. I have trusted your medical opinion for years. 

Even if his penis, through your underwear, reached your vagina, this would be an absolutely no risk event.  Nothing you describe suggests STI, including HIV.  EWH---

Ok. Thank you! 

Dr. Hook, I believe I have one last reply. My understanding is that all ars symptoms come at once with the exception of the rash which comes after the fever has ended. After 4 days of being sick with fever chills runny stuffy nose sneezing and feeling terrible I got a small red rash which is flat and non itchy no bumps. I was out on vacation and it got exposed to significant sunlight. It’s now looks almost black. Like way darker than the rest of my skin. If this were an HIV ARS related rash, would sun exposure turn it dark like this? Also, I had a 2 day bout of what felt like IBS type diarrhea. Could have been from traveling as others experienced this too. Is the ars rash flat non itchy and able to be sun burned? I also had a small 5 cluster of bumps on my wrist which came and went the same day. So strange…what does the actual Ars rash look and feel like? Would diarrhea develop after other cold symptoms have subsided? P.s. I know the exposure sounds zero risk but the symptoms are just so hard to ignore. Thank you so much for your service patience and professionalism. 

The rash of the AR5 typically starts about the same time, sometimes a day or two later than, the other ARS symptoms.  It tends to be widespread and in persons with dark skin may be dark in color.  Diarrhea is not particularly common (about 20% of the time) and you have good alternate explanations as well as the virtually no risk nature of the encounter.  That said, clearly this has you worried.  The best course of action may be to get tested to prove to yourself that this is not HIV-related.  If it were HIV-related your test would be positive.  I am confident if you choose to test, the results will be negative, proving that the symptoms you have described are not due to HIV.---