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Severe Diarrhoea - feeling suicidal
Doctor,
On July 5th I had sex with a prostitute in China, the condom broke and I removed straight away I think. Around 10 days later I got a sore throat and bad Diarrhoea. This gradually went away.
Now, after 8 weeks, I woke up on Sunday with chills etc and a fever of 38.8deg.C. - the fever only lasted a few hours but I was left with severe foul-smelling Diarrhoea and stomach cramps. I'm still getting them now (4days).
I saw the Doctor this morning and he said it sounded like a stomach bug, but this is the 2nd time now. I've also lost some weight in the last few months.
Can ARS come and go as I mention above?
I've never felt really ill apart from the other day, it's the severe Diarrhoea that's really making me worry and the cramps.
I am too scared to test just now as I would lose my job, wife and baby.
Please tell me if this sounds just like ARS???
Thank you.
On July 5th I had sex with a prostitute in China, the condom broke and I removed straight away I think. Around 10 days later I got a sore throat and bad Diarrhoea. This gradually went away.
Now, after 8 weeks, I woke up on Sunday with chills etc and a fever of 38.8deg.C. - the fever only lasted a few hours but I was left with severe foul-smelling Diarrhoea and stomach cramps. I'm still getting them now (4days).
I saw the Doctor this morning and he said it sounded like a stomach bug, but this is the 2nd time now. I've also lost some weight in the last few months.
Can ARS come and go as I mention above?
I've never felt really ill apart from the other day, it's the severe Diarrhoea that's really making me worry and the cramps.
I am too scared to test just now as I would lose my job, wife and baby.
Please tell me if this sounds just like ARS???
Thank you.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hello,
Thank you so much for your contribution to our HIV forum.
Let us try not to be so dramatic and put things into perspective. Let us look first of all at risk. Even though your incident involves a risk of HIV infection, this is relatively quite low, much less than 0.1% (less than 1 in 1,000) and that is assuming that the lady was positive. Not knowing that, this risk would be even much, much lower. Unfortunately HIV statistics in China are not very reliable so we do not know the exact figures of HIV positive female sex workers there, but all in all, I would imagine that the majority are negative. After all she was using a condom and sex workers are the ones that have to primarily protect themselves as they are constantly at risk.
Having said all this, symptoms of acute HIV sero-conversion are varied and non-specific and some of the ones you have had could certainly be consistent with it. Rather than panicking and worrying most likely unnecessarily, the best thing you ought to do is to get a test at the right window period. The Oraquick is a simple antibody test, highly reliable already after 6 to 8 weeks; your negative result can be considered as conclusive now as it has been done after 8 weeks. I strongly believe that you are negative and not need to worry. For total peace of mind in order to get on with your life, have this test repeated in a couple of weeks. That will be absolutely final.
Best wishes,
Dr José
Thank you so much for your contribution to our HIV forum.
Let us try not to be so dramatic and put things into perspective. Let us look first of all at risk. Even though your incident involves a risk of HIV infection, this is relatively quite low, much less than 0.1% (less than 1 in 1,000) and that is assuming that the lady was positive. Not knowing that, this risk would be even much, much lower. Unfortunately HIV statistics in China are not very reliable so we do not know the exact figures of HIV positive female sex workers there, but all in all, I would imagine that the majority are negative. After all she was using a condom and sex workers are the ones that have to primarily protect themselves as they are constantly at risk.
Having said all this, symptoms of acute HIV sero-conversion are varied and non-specific and some of the ones you have had could certainly be consistent with it. Rather than panicking and worrying most likely unnecessarily, the best thing you ought to do is to get a test at the right window period. The Oraquick is a simple antibody test, highly reliable already after 6 to 8 weeks; your negative result can be considered as conclusive now as it has been done after 8 weeks. I strongly believe that you are negative and not need to worry. For total peace of mind in order to get on with your life, have this test repeated in a couple of weeks. That will be absolutely final.
Best wishes,
Dr José
3 month antibody test is conclusive. 9 week is a very good indication. Your blood test you can probably consider conclusive based on the situation. But the CDC in America still uses 3 months as conclusive.
I just went to hospital because of persistent diarrhoea. They gave me an ora quick test in 20mins which was neg. How accurate are these mouth swabs. They also took blood but i am worrying of the result of blood. Should the ora quick be reliable at 9wks?
You will get a doc,,,wait for him to reply,,,,,
You can test now at 9 weeks,if its negative then your 3 months results is unlikely to change
You can test now at 9 weeks,if its negative then your 3 months results is unlikely to change
I paid for a reply from a doctor, why am i just gettinng you??
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