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HIV from kissing? Weird case.
Hello doctor,thanks in advance for answering my question.
I am a 24 year old male. Now, this question mwould be the strangest one you ever came across. Well is starts from May 2014. I got a sore throat that hardly lasted for 2 days. The sore throat ended but what was left was a dry hacking cough. This cough lasted for 3-4 months and the cough didn't start unless I raised my head or laugh out hard or had a smoke( I smoke 5-6 ciggs a day).I showed it to a doctor and he said your throat is irritated by smoke ( ciggarete and pollution). Now also an incident happened with me which is quite embarrassing. I lived in a flat with a guy and one day in sleep he just kissed me. It was an open mouth kiss that lasted for 8-10 seconds. I was in sleep that time but I still remember it happening. I know sometimes you don't have any control and things tend to happen in sleeep, something like sexsomnia. I didn't talk to him about this because I thought that would embarrass him. Now moving some months ahead in time. From somewhere I came to know that HIV doesn't cause any symptoms when in body. I immediately got worried that I may have been exposed to it and didn't know that I have it. I then started recalling each time when I might have exposed myself. I had a girlfriend of 2 years and I aksed her whether or not she has it. She said she didn't and asked why are u asking this. I told her that one may get infected and not know. So we had fights over this and I blamed her that she has given me hiv. These fights lasted for 2 months until she went and undertook a HIV antibody test and was found nonreactive(0.13). Also I would like to add that during this time I got so depressed that I could hardly think of anything else. It affected me so badly that I lost my job. I remained stressed throught out the day. I used to wake up at night with my heart throbbing like it would come out of my chest. This phase lasted for at least a month. I also had a thermometer with me and I kept checking whether or not I had fever or not( I know I am crazy). One day it just happened that I found my temperature elevated. It was 99. After getting that reading I thought my fear has come true . I am surely infected. (This was before my girlfriend got tested). Now I always had thermometer with me and kept checking myself. This temperature of 99 hit me in the evening. In morning it was all OK. Then it subsided till 8 p.m. and I was normal after that. I continued to have this low grade temperature hike every evening . I showed a doctor the entire chart of my body temperature with an entry for each hour in a day. He said that it looked okay to him and said 99 is not a fever. Sometimes it did exceed to 99.2. Now this fever continued . Apart from the fever I also got one more thing. I had swollen tonsils in my throat . They were not that much swollen nor did they hurt too much. They were just there. Now I immediately searched about it on the internet like I always do and I found that tonsils are a type of lymph nodes only. After reading this I went numb. I got afraid that whatever I am experiencing is related to HIV . I kept searching on the internet about it. I used to press the areas of my body which had lymph nodes . Found none at that time. Daily I used to press my neck or armpits or groin for that. Daily!!!!. I felt ill all the time even though I didn't have any worry some symptoms. I was like a dead man living. (This was also before my girlfriend got tested). Now I showed it to an ENT doctor and he said that you have pus behind your tonsils,I had a strep test which was negative to which he said that it doesn't always come positive.Also I also had small tiny dots like petechiae inside my mouth which came and go within a day ( not palatal but usually on inside of cheeks). There were only 1-2 at a time and weren't always there. Now after my gf got tested I was fine for a while when something struck me. Maybe 'the incident that I had with my room mate' gave me HIV. I again went back to searching on internet about the chances of HIV through open mouth kissing. I found that there are no documented cases apart from one where both the partners had bleeding gums. But still I couldn't get it off my mind. Also hiv through kissing is difficult to transmit because of the saliva such is present .Now I am so negative that I usually come up with a counter question. Now my mind thought that since I was sleeping I didn't have saliva in my mouth coz in sleep you don't produce saliva or at least that much. So I again got tensed that that maybe what I am thinking is true and I did got it that way. I don't remember having cuts in my mouth that time ( no one can know when s/he has cuts in their mouths) but I don't usually get ulcers . Now I started connecting that dry cough episode with this incident, maybe those symptoms were of ARS. I am not able to make out the exact time when that cough came( before or after the kiss) but my mind has me convinced that it happened after the kiss. Also I am still in touch with that guy and I just can't ask him this directly,its too embarrasing. Also I stayed with him throughout the day as he was in my office only, I didnt see him taking drugs or ART medicines anytime. Also he drinks and smokes all the time which would mean if he had HIV and knows about it he wouldn't do all this drinking and smoking. Also he has a girlfriend and he recently told me that he had unorotect sex with her and released it inside her , which means that if he has HIV he doesn't know coz he won't have unprotected sex. Now doctor after reading all this please please please answer my following questions . it is seriously ruining my life .I can't go for the test as I am too afraid as you must have judged me till now that I am a hypochondriac.
1. Can open mouth kissing transmit HIV when someone is in their sleep I.e. no saliva present.
2. The symptoms that I had(sore throat for 2-3 days and dry cough for 3-4 months). Are these symptoms consistent with ARS.( HIV initial symptoms )
3. Is the tonsil swelling related to hiv. Also the petechia thing? I didn't happen until 6 months after possible exposure. Also I have a lymph node under my jaw which is 1 c.m. or less in size plus have 2 more nodes in my neck less than 1 cm ,say .5-.7 mm. The doctor said that this is because of the tonsil infection in your throat . I don't have swollen lymph nodes in other part of my body ad far as I can say. Is this normal?
3. Could stress have weakened my immunity which may have caused other virus i already in my body to relapse( like EBV,mono).?
4. How much blood should be present in mouth for huv transmission to happen via kiss?. I read Dr bob's replies and he often said that you'll need a large amount of blood.
5. Do you think I am just over thinking and need a psychiatrist's help instead.
Thank you so much doctor for reading my such long question and also for the reply. I really appreciate the work that you all do.
I am a 24 year old male. Now, this question mwould be the strangest one you ever came across. Well is starts from May 2014. I got a sore throat that hardly lasted for 2 days. The sore throat ended but what was left was a dry hacking cough. This cough lasted for 3-4 months and the cough didn't start unless I raised my head or laugh out hard or had a smoke( I smoke 5-6 ciggs a day).I showed it to a doctor and he said your throat is irritated by smoke ( ciggarete and pollution). Now also an incident happened with me which is quite embarrassing. I lived in a flat with a guy and one day in sleep he just kissed me. It was an open mouth kiss that lasted for 8-10 seconds. I was in sleep that time but I still remember it happening. I know sometimes you don't have any control and things tend to happen in sleeep, something like sexsomnia. I didn't talk to him about this because I thought that would embarrass him. Now moving some months ahead in time. From somewhere I came to know that HIV doesn't cause any symptoms when in body. I immediately got worried that I may have been exposed to it and didn't know that I have it. I then started recalling each time when I might have exposed myself. I had a girlfriend of 2 years and I aksed her whether or not she has it. She said she didn't and asked why are u asking this. I told her that one may get infected and not know. So we had fights over this and I blamed her that she has given me hiv. These fights lasted for 2 months until she went and undertook a HIV antibody test and was found nonreactive(0.13). Also I would like to add that during this time I got so depressed that I could hardly think of anything else. It affected me so badly that I lost my job. I remained stressed throught out the day. I used to wake up at night with my heart throbbing like it would come out of my chest. This phase lasted for at least a month. I also had a thermometer with me and I kept checking whether or not I had fever or not( I know I am crazy). One day it just happened that I found my temperature elevated. It was 99. After getting that reading I thought my fear has come true . I am surely infected. (This was before my girlfriend got tested). Now I always had thermometer with me and kept checking myself. This temperature of 99 hit me in the evening. In morning it was all OK. Then it subsided till 8 p.m. and I was normal after that. I continued to have this low grade temperature hike every evening . I showed a doctor the entire chart of my body temperature with an entry for each hour in a day. He said that it looked okay to him and said 99 is not a fever. Sometimes it did exceed to 99.2. Now this fever continued . Apart from the fever I also got one more thing. I had swollen tonsils in my throat . They were not that much swollen nor did they hurt too much. They were just there. Now I immediately searched about it on the internet like I always do and I found that tonsils are a type of lymph nodes only. After reading this I went numb. I got afraid that whatever I am experiencing is related to HIV . I kept searching on the internet about it. I used to press the areas of my body which had lymph nodes . Found none at that time. Daily I used to press my neck or armpits or groin for that. Daily!!!!. I felt ill all the time even though I didn't have any worry some symptoms. I was like a dead man living. (This was also before my girlfriend got tested). Now I showed it to an ENT doctor and he said that you have pus behind your tonsils,I had a strep test which was negative to which he said that it doesn't always come positive.Also I also had small tiny dots like petechiae inside my mouth which came and go within a day ( not palatal but usually on inside of cheeks). There were only 1-2 at a time and weren't always there. Now after my gf got tested I was fine for a while when something struck me. Maybe 'the incident that I had with my room mate' gave me HIV. I again went back to searching on internet about the chances of HIV through open mouth kissing. I found that there are no documented cases apart from one where both the partners had bleeding gums. But still I couldn't get it off my mind. Also hiv through kissing is difficult to transmit because of the saliva such is present .Now I am so negative that I usually come up with a counter question. Now my mind thought that since I was sleeping I didn't have saliva in my mouth coz in sleep you don't produce saliva or at least that much. So I again got tensed that that maybe what I am thinking is true and I did got it that way. I don't remember having cuts in my mouth that time ( no one can know when s/he has cuts in their mouths) but I don't usually get ulcers . Now I started connecting that dry cough episode with this incident, maybe those symptoms were of ARS. I am not able to make out the exact time when that cough came( before or after the kiss) but my mind has me convinced that it happened after the kiss. Also I am still in touch with that guy and I just can't ask him this directly,its too embarrasing. Also I stayed with him throughout the day as he was in my office only, I didnt see him taking drugs or ART medicines anytime. Also he drinks and smokes all the time which would mean if he had HIV and knows about it he wouldn't do all this drinking and smoking. Also he has a girlfriend and he recently told me that he had unorotect sex with her and released it inside her , which means that if he has HIV he doesn't know coz he won't have unprotected sex. Now doctor after reading all this please please please answer my following questions . it is seriously ruining my life .I can't go for the test as I am too afraid as you must have judged me till now that I am a hypochondriac.
1. Can open mouth kissing transmit HIV when someone is in their sleep I.e. no saliva present.
2. The symptoms that I had(sore throat for 2-3 days and dry cough for 3-4 months). Are these symptoms consistent with ARS.( HIV initial symptoms )
3. Is the tonsil swelling related to hiv. Also the petechia thing? I didn't happen until 6 months after possible exposure. Also I have a lymph node under my jaw which is 1 c.m. or less in size plus have 2 more nodes in my neck less than 1 cm ,say .5-.7 mm. The doctor said that this is because of the tonsil infection in your throat . I don't have swollen lymph nodes in other part of my body ad far as I can say. Is this normal?
3. Could stress have weakened my immunity which may have caused other virus i already in my body to relapse( like EBV,mono).?
4. How much blood should be present in mouth for huv transmission to happen via kiss?. I read Dr bob's replies and he often said that you'll need a large amount of blood.
5. Do you think I am just over thinking and need a psychiatrist's help instead.
Thank you so much doctor for reading my such long question and also for the reply. I really appreciate the work that you all do.
Thanks for your reply mate. Did you go through my entire post or just replying seeing the title.?
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