HIV Risk

[Dolphcane]

Dr,

I am a 30 year old male. I recently had a brief encounter with a sex worker in which I had unprotected vaginal sex for about 30 seconds. Afterward I was aware that I did not have a condom on and stopped having sex with her. She also performed oral sex. After 4 weeks I began having a sore throat and fatigue, but what really got me worried is that I also have persistent pain in my knee joints and aches in my legs. I am really freaking out. Can you please give me your opinion.

Thank you

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Isolated joint pains are not suggestive of HIV.  I suggest you stop playing games with non-specific symptoms and get tested at the appropriate time.  EWH

[Dolphcane]

Thank you very much for your reply Dr. can you please give me your opinion on the joint pain in my knees. If have been sick before with muscle aches but this does not feel like that. I am really afraid that this symptom along with sore throat, fatigue and swollen lymph nodes in my neck are all the symptoms for HIV, in addition to happening within the time frame. I am very scared and don't know what else it could be

Thank you very much for your time

[Dolphcane]

Thank you very much for your reply Dr. can you please give me your opinion on the joint pain in my knees. If have been sick before with muscle aches but this does not feel like that. I am really afraid that this symptom along with sore throat, fatigue and swollen lymph nodes in my neck are all the symptoms for HIV, in addition to happening within the time frame. I am very scared and don't know what else it could be

Thank you very much for your time

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to the Forum.  Your risk of getting HIV from any single encounter, even if your partner is a commercial sex worker is low.  Here are the reasons I say this.

1.  It is unlikely your partner has HIV. Few commercial sew worker o. Further, in Australia, if your partner was I licensed CSW, I believe regular testing for is required, making your risk still less likely.
2. Even in the unlikely situation that your partner ah HIV, the risk of letting HIV from a single sex act is, on average, about 1 infection for every 1000 sex acts.  In your case, the risk is probably lower still given the brevity of your exposure.
3.  Symptoms are meaningless.  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 contrast, over a given year, there is almost no one who has not had a viral illness, night sweats or both (sometimes on multiple occasions).  For a person to try to judge their HIV risk based on "ARS symptoms" is a waste of time.

So, what should you do? It is appropriate for you to be tested for HIV and other STDs (like gonorrhea an chlamydia).  You can test at this time with a combined HIV p24 antigen/HIV antibody test had have complete confidence that the results are accurate. Alternatively, you could wait an be tested with a standard HIV antibody test at 8 weeks after exposure and also have completely reliable test results.

I hope my comments are helpful.  Get tested, then believe the results (I am confident they will be negative).  EWH