PLEASE!!! Help Needed

[Agnee]

I had sex with a girl and the condom broke. It was about 10 minutes. She informed me there after that she is HIV Positive. I immediately went to a doctor. He drew blood and gave me a pep starter pack. I need to follow this program for 28 days. This is my 1st ever time having sex. How effective is the PEP course and in reality what is my chances now? Please give me the full truth....

[Edward W Hook, MD]

As you point out, your stress and anxiety is out of control and it is becoming clear that my efforts to help with facts are not successful.  This is my last response.

There are billions of sexually active persons on earth, the majority of whom are sexually active.  Do the math.  Billions of sexually active persons with multiple exposures add up to millions of cases.  Add to the the fact that certain activities such as rectal sex or sharing needles also increase risk of transmission and it becomes easy to see both why there are millions of cases of HIV worldwide and why your risk, as described is so low.  EWH

[Agnee]

Thanks so much. Last question:

Is there any differences to Pep used in the US to South Africa and if the chances of being infected is so small, why is there so many people living with HIV in the world. Most people will never have sex 1200 times in there live.
Thanks for all your help

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Less than 1/10th of 1%   EWH

[Agnee]

Doctor, percentage wise. What am I looking at? I'm stressing like hell...

[Edward W Hook, MD]

I'm sorry to hear of your experience.  You have done exactly the right things.  You are fortunate that your partner was willing to tell you she was HIV infected and to have quickly seen a knowledgeable health care provider who acted to get you on post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP).  By taking your post-exposure prophylaxis as directed, your chances of getting HIV are very, very low.  Let me tell you the reasons why:

1.  Following a single sexual exposure to an HIV infected sex partner, your chances of getting HIV are less than  1 in 1000.  
2.  Post exposure antiviral prophylaxis works.  The best studies of PEP have been conducted in persons following needle stick exposures and have demonstrated dramatic reductions in HIV acquisition.

When PEP is combined with the relatively low probability  of HIV acquisition from a single exposure, I am confident that you will be able to prevent the potential infection.  I realize that this reassurance will need to await follow-up blood tests to be truly confident that you were not infected but I hope that my comments will help some.  EWH