crazy drunken night

[sillybilly818]

Hi the Doc, i am living in South Africa and am quite concerned about my hiv status after a really silly evening on the town.
Firstly i had too much to drink but still had my thoughts to make sure i used condoms. The only thing is that i had to use four of them as two of the condoms broke whilst being inside her. The woman is a coloured SexWorker, and also insisted heavily on condom usage which was great until on two occasions during the evening they broke. The first one I pulled out immediately then washed in the shower and put on a new condom the second one i may have been inside her for no more than a minute then replaced the broken condom with a new one. I was very lucky indeed that i called her the next day and she agreed to join me for an hiv test, one of those that they prick your finger for a drop of blood. Both of us were negative.

What i want to know is what are the chances she could still be infected (she did say that she last went for a test on 06 March 2010 and checks regularly). Do i have a worry about being infected? This has made me very anxious! I know their are statistics for all of this that will assist me. I also would like to know if i must get tested again when should it be and if this woman i had sex with to come with me again could i go at an earlier date?

Thx Doc, your answers will be greatly appreciated...

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Glad to be of service.  Take care.  EWH

[sillybilly818]

Thank you for your reply Dr Edward Hook.

I really needed this advice, because when i was speaking with the HIV councilor they made me think that my risk was far greater than you descibe.

Your forum provides seriously anxcious people to calm down and think of the realalities of their situations or encounters.

Agian thank you and keep up the fantastic service you provide.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to the Forum.  Before I comment on your risk, I must say that two have condoms break more than once during an encounter with a partner is rather unusual and it makes me worry that the condoms you were using were not of good quality.  In the future you may wish to use another type of condom. If the condoms were supplied by your partner, in the future you might decide to obtain your own.

Now a comment on your risk.  As you probably know, in South Africa the HIV rates are rather high among commercial sex workers.  That your partner was insistent on condom use is a good sign and probably indicates that she was working hard to avoid becoming infected by a client.  In the situation you describe, in which both you and your partner had negative tests following your sexual encounter, you can be confident that neither of you put the other at risk for HIV and that you need not worry further about it.  The theoretical possibility that she was in the process of seroconverting and that she had HIV despite her negative test is extraordinarily low.

Bottom line, based on the fact that you both had negative HIV tests the day following your condom failure, you can be confident that you did not get HIV.  i see no medical need for further testing.  EWH