[Question #7504] Severe Symptoms
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56 months ago
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Hello experts,I'm pretty nervous right now and hope you can offer me some reassurance. I went to see a csw about a month ago and had both protected oral and protected intercourse. I was not feeling it that day so after only a few minutes of intercourse (1 or 2) we stopped and I finished myself outside condom. The condom was provided by the csw and was an off branded cheap one but as far as I can tell was not broken. I could not confirm, as I never ejaculated into the condom so I don't know if there were holes made from oral or whatnot, again, nothing visible as far as I can tell.
This is the scary part. After the exposure I found out that the escort is a well reviewed person and there are highly credible reports that she has been a drug addict for multiple years and she funds her habit by the trade. Her HIV status is unknown but lets please assume she was +.
Scary part 2. After exactly 15 days I had every HIV symptom in the book. High fever of 38.5 degrees celsius, body ache, migrane, swollen saliva glands that pressed up against my wisdom tooth (inside mouth). No cough, and all the symptoms appeared together. No sore throat and nothing that looked like a HIV rash although I did find some parts of my body were more red than others, might be due to the fever. I did a covid test and it came back negative which made anxiety worse. The timing and all of the symptoms are what freaks me out, although this is suppose to be a low risk to no risk scenario.I went and did a blood test today so I'm awaiting results but as u can tell I am getting very nervous. If it was mono I should have a bad sore throat, as far as I'm aware HIV would not cause a sore throat. I asked this question on POZ forums as well but the expert there told me that this is a no risk scenario and move on with my life without testing! Have you known anyone who used a condom and still became his positive? How high is my risk?
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
56 months ago
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Welcome to our forum. Thanks for your question. I am confident that you did not get HIV from the exposure you describe. Here are the reasons I say this:
1. Most commercial sex workers, even those who use drugs, do not have HIV.
2. You used a condom and it did not break. When condoms break, they break wide open and there is no doubt they failed. You did not see a break.
3. Most single exposures to infected partners do not lead to infection. A single act of penile-vaginal intercourse leads to acquisition of HIV on average, only once in every 2500 sex acts. Oral sex is lower risk still and you used a condom.
Your flu-like illness is non-specific and could have been cause by many “everyday” viral illnesses unrelated to your exposure. The timing is almost certainly coincidental.
As you can see, I agree with the assessment that others have already provided. This was a virtually no,risk encounter for HIV as well as other STIs. Please don’t worry. EWH
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56 months ago
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Dr Hook, merry Xmas to you. I have been reading your responses for going on years and I'm thankful for your expertise today.
I just want to follow up by saying that the condom was provided by the worker and it was a dark room, plus the fact that I did not ejaculate I cannot tell if there were holes. I've heard verbatim before where people reported that they found holes in the condom post intercourse, as well as malicious actors who have poked holes intentionally in condoms where the female party is looking to get pregnant, and the insertive party never noticed these holes and the woman does end up pregnant.
1) It does sound abit paranoid I know, what I'm asking is have you ever heard of a case of where the insertive partner in a heterosexual relationship ever turn out HIV positive after a condom break episode?
2) Also in regards to my symptoms, what other viral infections do you believe causes the symptoms that I have had, exactly 16 days after exposure? Fever, saliva glands enlarge, body ache, weakness and dizziness to the point that I am bed bound which all came at once but got better over 4 days? No cough, no sore throat.
I wasn't able to find anything other than ARS?
3) i had liquid diarrhea for the last 2 days where everything I drank came out as water, and I was quite dehydrated. Do you know if this is a symptom of ars as well?
Thank you so much for your time Dr Hook.
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
56 months ago
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1. I agree with you. You do sound a bit paranoid. When condoms break, they break wide-open leaving no doubt that they have broken. You would have noticed this even in a dark room. Further with the stories malicious persons putting holes or tears in condoms for the purpose of infecting others is simply not the case. This is not verified or validated. It is a manifestation of internet-fueled paranoia. Remember, Commercial sex workers value repeat partners (you were able to review this person after the fact) and infecting paying partners is bad for business. Please don’t worry that this may have happened. I have never heard of any such instance in my career.
2. Resent them to describe our class viral infections including COVID-19, influenza, CMV infection etc. Just because the Internet lists the acute retroviral syndrome first does not mean that is what has caused your symptoms. In careful scientific studies of persons presenting for emergent care with flu-like symptoms such as yours less than 1% of these people have HIV.
3. Diarrhea may be seen in the ARS. Your diarrhea in no way changes my assessment.
When you receive your test results, negative tests will prove unequivocally that your symptoms are not due to HIV. EWH
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56 months ago
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Thanks for this Dr Hook. One more question, what are the risks of kissing? Does this sound like something I could have caught kissing her? 14 days post exposure but I have no cough or sore throat... would you recommend testing for anything based of symptoms and kissing?
If you leave this threat open i can post my test results in a few days.
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
56 months ago
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Sigh. In my original response I said “no risk”. This includes kissing. You do not need additional testing. You need to move forward without concern.
This completes this thread. I will leave it open but there will be no further replies. EWH
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