How long until HIV becomes transmittable?

[enigma53180]

Ok the story is, I had sex with a woman from the Philippines and the condom slipped and we basically had unprotected sex until climax. The woman had sex with a man from Nigeria about a month earlier, not that it bothers me he is from Nigeria but the HIV statistics in Africa give me pause.

So my question is how long does HIV need to incubate until it becomes transmittable? For example, if she had contracted HIV one month ago how long would it take until she could transmit it? Do not know if it matter but all this occurred in China.

Thank you

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

The potential for transmission probably begins a few days after acquiring the virus and remains high for a couple of weeks.  That interval--the first 2-4 weeks after acquiring HIV, before a person's antibody test becomes positive--is the period of maximum HIV transmission.

That doesn't mean you were at high risk.  You have to add up the odds that her Nigerian partner had HIV; the chance he infected her; and the chance that you caught it during a single episode of unprotected vaginal sex, if she was infected.  Those figures suggest a very low risk for you.

Good luck--  HHH, MD

[enigma53180]

So what you are saying is that if she was infected, that no matter how long after the intial infection she can transmit the virus to others?

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

I don't know how to say it more clearly than I did.  A person with HIV becomes infectious for others a few days after acquiring the virus, and remains infectious for the rest of his/her life.  The level of infectiousness varies widely and tends to be highest in the first few weeks.