Am I infected?

Hi Dr.

First of all thank you for helping me.

I had protected sex with a girl that I barely know on 23Jun. I then has sore throat, headache, on and off diarrhea and muscle ache on right arm and chest a few days later.

I went to see different doctor. Fatique - doctor said it was due to over-stretched and i recovered 3-4 weeks after.

Sore throat doctor said it probably due to some allergy, after some medication i recovered after 3-4 weeks

Headache I had no clue

Diarrhea seems due to onion or milk.

One month after 23Jun I saw a doctor specialised on STD and he said they don't seem like HIV. I had blood test and a few days later he said it was negative.

I also done another P24 blood test 16 days after 23Jun and it was negative.

Just last night I had sore throat which feel like last time and I just saw doctor he said it is tonsillitis.

do you think my case suggest HIV infection? what can i do now?

many thanks!

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to the Forum.  Please realize that the starting point for my response to you relates to the fact that your exposure on June 23 was condom protected.  Condom protected sex is safe sex and for persons having protected sex with an infected partner, the chance of you being infected is less than 1 in a million.  In addition, symptoms are a notoriously bad indicator of HIV infection.  We have made 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 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).  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.

My advice to you would be to go on and get an HIV test at this time.  It has now been more than 8 weeks since your exposure.  A result at 8 weeks in your situation, can be considered definitive and when you get the negative result that I am sure you will get you can know that you do not have HIV,  I suspect your sore throat and other symptoms may be due to some other non-STD viral infection that you acquired in the course of your every day activities.

Hope this helps.  EWH