Last Question-ARS forms?

[worried in toronto]

Hi Doc,

This is my second and last question in the past 6 months (i read the disclaimer)

I am wondering specifically about Acute Retroviral Syndrome. A month or so after my protected sex and received oral (without condom)with a married woman who i work with teaching, i experienced a 8 day illness which consisted of sore throat for an evening then very stuffed nose and 6 days or so of mucous and phleghm. In my hours of research i have stumbled upon several sources which indicate the non-specific symptoms of ars. I did NOT have the fever, lymphadenopathy, rash, mylagia, oral candidasis, or any of the other supposed "hallmark" symptoms. Does ARS manifest as a common cold occasionally?

Furthermore, i have booked a test a few weeks from now. The incident of condom protected sex was 6 months ago. Also, prior to that i was with one other woman coincidentally of the same occupation and marital status and that was also protected vaginal and I received oral. Do you think my chances of getting a negative HIV test are good? Also four months or so after the initial syndrome i experienced a slight stuffed and runny nose for a day or so.

Odds? Thanks doc. Have a nice weekend.
Roger.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

ARS does not, to my knowledge, cause cold-like sypmtoms, stuffy nose, etc.  You can be 100% confident your coming HIV test will be negative, assuming you have not other exposures.  If postive, I would simply not believe you got it from a single episode of unprotected oral sex plus condom-protected vaginal sex with a married colleague in your workplace.

To G-man and others in the discussion below:  It remains a fact that insertive oral sex is a low risk for HIV acquisition.  My understanding is that the data in support of 8% acquired by that route are very weak, based only on intereviews of newly diagnosed HIV infected persons.  Such individuals' judgment about when and where they were infected is notoriously unreliable. Most newly infected persons have had many exposures of various kinds during the several week period when they could have been infected, and the specific responsible exposure isn't known.  Also, many people in that situation frankly lie.  (Someone who has been repeatedly told and knows it is unsafe to have unprotected anal sex might not admit they did something so dumb, so they claim no such exposure and attribute their infection to fellatio.)  It remains a fact that there are very few cases in which new HIV infection occurred when there was no other plausible route of exposure.  Finally, let's say it might be true that as many as 8% of newly HIV infected persons acquired their infections by insertive fellatio.  Those persons are virtually 100% gay men; and that still translates to an extraordinarily low risk of HIV transmission for any single episode of unprotected oral sex among gay men.  And the risk for heterosexual exposure--in which most of the female partners of the persons asking questions on this forum are unlikely to be infected anyway--is astronomically low.

HHH, MD

[Willl]

I remember reading that sinus problems are NOT related to ARS, and drainage would explain the sore throat. Nobody has been documented as getting HIV from a blow job. Your test will definitely be negative if these are your only exposure concerns.

[worried in toronto]

thanks will for the comment i appreciate support. I will wait for Dr. H's opinion on ARS.

[G-Man]

Nobody has ever been proven to have contracted this virus from a blow job?? Wrong, just plain wrong! The San Fransico Health Dept. has determined that up to 8% of their new infections came from unprotected oral sex only! The interviews that were conducted were matter of fact, these people who became infected have no reason to say otherwise. Why would they, they are already infected. I too have been tested out to 4 months and Neg. from an unprotected oral episode and will continue testing because of the ongoing symptoms. If the symptoms that started 2 weeks after the episode didn't persist so much I would be done testing. I've had many people tell me to stop testing except those from the CDC. 6 months is the goal. The CDC sight will also say that transmission is possible this way although not as risky, but still risky. They too have said that they have some documented cases of people infected by oral sex. The real problem with this whole oral sex thing is that unprotected oral almost always will lead to sex, and some of that sex is unprotected, so the problem is, did the infection come from the oral sex or the traditional sex. The assumption I think would always be that the infection had to come from traditional sex. But who knows in light of some of this disturbing evidence oral may have been the real deal. Bottom line, it is not safe! I sure wish I knew this info. before my mishap. Don't we all! Not trying to spook anyone, but if you research it you will find these facts out. I would love to just hear "Oh you had a zero to low risk exposure even if your partner was infected, there is just no real way you could have contracted the virus" But I value my health too much to just sit back and say OK I'm cool with that, I know I feel like ****, but so & so said I'm in the clear. No way! If the CDC says to test at 3 months and 6 months so be it. After all they are looking out for everyone by setting this standard. We should all feel confident in a 3 month test or even an 8 or 10 week test as they are highly reliable time frames, but just not 100%
I mean after all if the risks for contracting this virus are so low to begin with, then why do 40,000,000 have it worldwide.
And if the CDC says that there are 3% that would not show by 3 months, then the chances of being one of the 3% is much greater than the low low risk of aquiring this virus in the first
place! If we all care about our health, which I would assume we all do otherwise you wouldn't be in here reading all this stuff, then to do what we know we should do should not be a problem and that is be highly confident in our 6,8,10 week or 3 month tests as we should be, but just to be completely safe, for the sake of our health, test again at 6 months.

[G-Man]

I do not want sound insensitive to your post because I'm not. I was responding to this whole oral sex thing! It does not sound like you have contracted anything to me. I also don't believe I have. This is strongly considered a very low risk activity, which explains that the CDC has only some cases of transmission this way. The San Fransico Health Dept. also did not specify insertive or receptive. Receptive( the one giving oral) is the higher risk and probably accounted for most if not all the infections, based upon it being the higher risk.

[worried in toronto]

Gman,

i did not perform oral sex! i received it.

[Willl]

No, the difference is receiving versus giving oral sex. This guy received oral sex.  Here is my source:

http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/hiv?page=basics-00-08

You are referring to this:

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pubs/facts/oralsexqa.htm

"Nearly half (3 of 8) of these cases reported oral problems, including occasional bleeding gums. Almost all (7 of 8) of these men reported to have had oral contact with pre-semen or semen."

[Willl]

Look below under the "unwarranted anxiety" post.
Dr. HHH says "4) HIV zero risk by fellatio".

[worried in toronto]

Will, i also had sex with the two women, albeit with condoms the entire time.

[Willl]

I found your original post on all this. It was summed up well then. There is nothing for you to be concerned about. Get a test only to get your mind around it, you have not been experiencing ARS.

[who_is_this]

Why would you not think you had a cold?  Why would you think a sore throat, stuffy nose, mucus and phlegm would be HIV, an uncommon and hard to transmit disease, when the common cold is probably 10,000 times more likely, and extremely easy to transmit and receive and this is the cold and flu season?

*Walks away, shaking head*  

[G-Man]

You know what seems all to coincidental is that there are so many people like us writing in about having unprotected insertive oral sex and within a few weeks of the episode experience some form of illness that we all swear is not normal.
I believe the risk is very low if any at all. But to see so many have similar stories and symptoms, it keeps  me little bit
concerned, despite my Neg. results out to 4 months. My symptoms have been ongoing for 3.5 months. Thanks for the sights you posted, they were helpful.

G-Man

[Willl]

It's not just people with oral sex exposures experiencing these "symptoms", it's anyone with any kind of exposure that they are worrying themselves sick over. I am doing it to myself also, but I have OCD so it is even harder for me to stop. It is the same on any forums you find on HIV on the internet. People are having all the symptoms of HIV after things as no risk as kissing. Almost all are psychosomatic stress induced, I almost always read later they tested negative. There are some exceptions of course.