My chances of being infected

Hi Doctor

On the 22/4 I had sex with a prostitute and i must have just inserted
When she told me to take it out as it was broken. And it was broken. So
A new one was used. It has been 10 days and I have developed swollen
Lymph nodes in my groin and all over stiff muscles and ache. What are my risks.
Is there anyway to detect this earlier then 3 months and how accurate
Would that be?

Cheers
Mark

[Dr Sean Cummings]

Hi Mark

You give some detail but not much.

The very important detail with this sort of question is where in the world was the sex worker and whether she gave any detail about her health etc. For example, a sex worker in Mayfair in London is most unlikely to be HIV positive whereas a sex worker in Beijing is more likely to be HIV positive.

Since you now have the symptoms and signs you describe then yes, you need to test for all the likely sexually transmitted diseases. These include gonorrhoea, chlamydia, syphilis, and of course HIV.

testing for gonorrhoea and chlamydia at this point will be very accurate and reliable.

Testing for syphilis at 28 days using IgG/IgM will be accurate.

You can test for HIV now at ten days after the event by using an HIV PCR RNA test which is available in the UK and in some parts of the US - especially New York. We would combine that with an HIV DUO test and also repeat a DUO test at 28 days post exposure.

The HIV RNA PCR's are very accurate indeed at this point.

Best wishes, Sean

[Mard101]

thank you doctor Sean, i did forget to mention the prostitute was in melbourne australia. i am not sure about what is the prevalance of hiv in australia. would you be able to shed light on this. and is swollen lymph glands a sure sign of something being wrong?

[Mard101]

hi doctor

its me again, since my last post i have developed a sore throat as weel, i may be being a bit paranoid, but how easy is it for me to get infected by hetrosexual sex ? albiet with a broken condom??