Aa
Can i move on from the worry?
Dear Doctor, about 3 months back i had unprotected vaginal and oral sex with a long time female friend she tells me she gets check routinely, and has a a 5 year old son. we still speak to this day and remains close friend with out the sexual encounters due to her new relationship with her bf. Also i know for a fact that she is not a drug user. out of anxiety and worry i went to get tested at 12 days after the encounter here at the std clinic in new york city and it came out (rapid finger prick test) Negative, and they took a tube of blood since i didnt take the test anonymously. That test also came back negative thankfully. i went back at the 5 week mark and 7 week mark to get tested and both came back negative. The test at the 5 and 7 weeks mark were also Rapid finger prick test but no tube of blood was drawn since i took anonymously. ive had no symptoms, no rash, sore throat, or swollen glands. i went to the ER on Wednesday because of a stomach flu and turns out i had Gastroenteritis, they did blood work there but it came clean. can i move on from this ordeal or do i have to get tested again? and how reliable are the rapid finger prick tests?
thank you doctor...
thank you doctor...
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Of course no surprise, but congratulations.
hey doc just an update i went back and got tested last wed 6-1-11 which made it 15 weeks, and the rapid test (finger stick) came out negative, just wanted to make sure. thanks for all the help.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Glad you're fairly mellow about it. All is well and I'm glad to have helped. Take care.
Oh yea I fogot to mention I won't get retested again
thanks for the response, my friend is from the dominican republic but came to nyc at a very early age. I also am hispanic. The event with her took place back in febuary its the middle of may now and no ars thankfully and yes I do know I ate something bad that caused my stomach flu. About the rapid tests I can now rest easy doc thanks again
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Welcome to the forum.
No worries; you don't have HIV. Your risk really was too low to even have a single HIV test. Here is why:
The odds a woman like your partner has HIV is zero or close to it. Being in New York could elevate the chance she is infected, since heterosexually transmitted HIV is more common than in most other cities -- especially if she is African American. But even then, it is unlikely she has it. And if she were infected, the odds of catching HIV from only a single episode of vaginal sex are very low, probably on the order of 1 chance in 2,000; and oral sex is virtually zero risk. Finally, your symptoms do not suggest a new HIV infection, which does not cause gastroenteritis as the only problem; as you seem to know, you didn't have any of the usual symptoms of ARS.
But most important, your negative test results, especially the one at 7 weeks, prove you didn't catch HIV. A negative rapid test, either fignerstick or oral fluids, is just as reliable as a lab-based test. Something other than HIV is the cause of your gastroenteritis.
In case you are wondering why a 7 week test is sufficient, and you don't need another test, despite common advice about testing at 3 months, take a look at this thread: http://www.medhelp.org/posts/HIV-Prevention/-A-Question-on-Testing/show/1347755
So you definitely can move on with no worries and no need for further testing.
I hope this helps. Best wishes-- HHH, MD
No worries; you don't have HIV. Your risk really was too low to even have a single HIV test. Here is why:
The odds a woman like your partner has HIV is zero or close to it. Being in New York could elevate the chance she is infected, since heterosexually transmitted HIV is more common than in most other cities -- especially if she is African American. But even then, it is unlikely she has it. And if she were infected, the odds of catching HIV from only a single episode of vaginal sex are very low, probably on the order of 1 chance in 2,000; and oral sex is virtually zero risk. Finally, your symptoms do not suggest a new HIV infection, which does not cause gastroenteritis as the only problem; as you seem to know, you didn't have any of the usual symptoms of ARS.
But most important, your negative test results, especially the one at 7 weeks, prove you didn't catch HIV. A negative rapid test, either fignerstick or oral fluids, is just as reliable as a lab-based test. Something other than HIV is the cause of your gastroenteritis.
In case you are wondering why a 7 week test is sufficient, and you don't need another test, despite common advice about testing at 3 months, take a look at this thread: http://www.medhelp.org/posts/HIV-Prevention/-A-Question-on-Testing/show/1347755
So you definitely can move on with no worries and no need for further testing.
I hope this helps. Best wishes-- HHH, MD
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