Possible symtpoms after 2 days?

[joshious]

Hello, I am trying to find out if the symptoms I have could in any way be connected to an HIV infection.

On Thursday night I had unprotected oral sex, but no in mouth ejaculation, both receiving and giving (male-male). Then on Saturday morning I had a major headache and minor sore throat. The symptoms have been coming and going though, and Advil makes it go away almost completely, but its Sunday now and I still have the headache and minor sore throat. I just am wondering if headache (which I normally never get) and minor sore throat could be symptoms of an HIV infection less than 48 hours after potential exposure.

I just had my final exams and did not sleep very much the last few days, so I am hoping this is just some viral infection which got a hold of me because of fatigue.

Can you advise on how likely it is to develop these symptoms after only 2 days?

Thank you!

[Edward W Hook, MD]

For starters, rather than giving in to rumor, ask him is he is HIV infected.  Rumors are very unreliable.  If he is infected and on effective therapy, this should reduce your likelihood on infection since therapy lowers the amount of virus in the blood and the likelihood of infection increases with increasing virus in the blood.  

You are right, as I said, the appearance of symptoms so soon indicates they are not related to HIV.

At 4 weeks 75-80% of tests that will be positive will be.  By six weeks that rises to more than 95%.  Testing after 6 weeks would virtually assure you that you are not infected and at 4 weeks you could be nearly as sure.  EWH

[Edward W Hook, MD]

There is virtually no way that that your headache and sore throat are related to having HIV.  Let's review the reasons that I say this form start to finish.  

1.  You do not know your partner was HIV infected.  In fact, odds are that he was not.
2.  The odds of getting HIV through oral sex is less than 1 in 10,000.  This if anything is an overestimate.   Oral sex is common and although there a few case reports which suggest that individuals may have gotten HIV through this route their are NO such series and neither Dr. Handsfield nor I have ever seen such a case.
3.  You have probably missed our repeated statements that the symptoms of the ARS are TOTALLY non-specific and when people experience "ARS symptoms" they are much more likely to have something else, usually some other, more typical virus infection.  When this has been studied in the US, less than 1% of persons seeking medical care for "ARS symptoms" are found to have HIV, the remainder having symptoms due to other processes.  In addition, it is also important to realize that many persons who acquire HIV do not experience the ARS.  For a person to try to judge their HIV risk based on "ARS symptoms" is a waste of time.
4.  The timing is wrong.  ARS typically occurs about two weeks, not two days after exposure.

My guess, the stress and effort of exams +/- some other non-HIV, non-STD, community acquired viral infection is the likely source of your infection.  You have nothing to worry about and your exposure does not warrant testing.  Take care.  EWH

[Edward W Hook, MD]

I think that is a reasonable approach.  Another is to tell him of your concern and the rumors and ask him to go an get tested at the same time you do.  Just a thought.  LEt us know when you do find out more. so we can celebrate with you. EWH

[joshious]

Thank you for your quick follow up response.

I dont think asking will be of any use, because the source of the rumor said that he is positive but denies it when asked.

I will just get myself tested in a month then, and until then I will just assume that if I cant win the lottery I cant have gotten HIV from him either (as the likelihood seems about the same)!

Thanks again for your help, I feel much better now!

[joshious]

Thank you for your timely response!  I was really starting to worry, because I think that the person I had sex with does in fact have HIV, because I heard some rumors about him today (but not definitive information).

However, if he is positive, it has been for many years, and must be on drugs to lower his viral count, therefore the risk of getting HIV from a tiny amount of pre-*** would be very low I imagine. Is this true?  (there were no visible sores or cuts on the penis or mouth)

All in all the encounter was very clean, the oral sex lasted only maybe 45 seconds, and these symptoms I described before fir appeared approx 30 hours after the sexual contact. I suppose that means they cannot possibly be connected to a possible infection then?

When would you recommend going for testing in relation to this incident that happened 3 days ago?  It seems highly unlikely as you said, so thank you for dispelling my fears! But if he is HIV+ I would like to get tested anyways.

Thanks again,

Best regards!