Do I need to re-test or am I paranoid

[needadvice578]

I had an encounter with a escort 13 weeks ago. The condom slipped upon withdrawal but did not break. This was my only exposure. I tested negative for HIV and other STD's at 20 and 31 days. I paid the escort to test also at 30 days and her report came back negative as well. Given that the doctors on their forum have put the reliability at about 90% for a one month result, I felt satisfied at the results and had moved on. The problem is that I have been suffering from a mildy irritated throat for at least 10 weeks. I never had a chronic problem like this. I went to an ENT who said that my throat did not look very sore and that it could be either allergies or GERD. Those medications have not helped.

My questions are:

1.  Does a sore throat present itself as a lone symptom of HIV, as I have never had fever, swollen lymph nodes, etc. or other unexplained symptoms since the exposure. And would the irritated throat last this long?

Now for the paranoid question:

2. I received my blood tests at an STD Clinic in NYC. Has anyone ever heard of an accidental exposure to HIV by a used needle from a blood test? I did not observe the STD clinicians open packages of new needles but I wasn't really paying attention for that at the time.

Thanks.

[nonbeliever]

you are not at risk, your sore throat is most likely what your ent said it was and they do not re use needles, and yes you are being paranoid,

[shady55]

good thing your not in nevada, a health clinic there re used needles and may have infected over 150,000 people with all three types of hepatitis, and HIV/AIDS. "Only to save a few bucks". Actually they re used the syringes I believe not the needle. The syringe has to be clean too, not just the needle!

[needadvice578]

I believe the Nevada case you are referring to was an endoscopy clinic. From CNN: "A syringe (not a needle) used on a patient was used again on the same person to draw additional medication. The re-drawing of medicine using the same syringe could infect the vial from where the medicine was taken from the patient. The vial, not identified for use on multiple people, was reused for another patient. If the vial was infected with the blood of the first person, it is possible that the vial could have been exposed to blood borne pathogens."

There are 85 confirmed cases of Hepatitis C resulting from this but I didn't read any confirmed cases of HIV infection. This was a  private for profit clinic, so saving money could have been a motive.

Now that I've read about the Nevada case, and can't find anything else like it, it seems like in a simple blood test, especially at an STD Clinic, this is much more unlikely to happen.

I would hope that being tested at an NYC STD Clinic is not considered a new exposure separate from the one that you tested for. That would certainly defeat the purpose.

Thanks for posting that story. It helped me realize that my fear is not reasonable.

[Teak]

Ignore Shady, they have no idea what they are talking about.

[needadvice578]

So do you believe that I should not worry and that the negative tests that I have taken at 20 and 31 days along with the escort's negative test at 30 are conclusive enough? In other words, notwithstanding my irritated throat and my unreasonable fear of an infected needle, no need to retest and I can move on?

Thanks.

[needadvice578]

Could someone with knowledge in this area tell me if a sore/irritated throat is a lone symptom or must it be accompanied with other symptoms like fever? I know symptoms are not necessarily indicitive of infection but when sore throat is a symptom does it present that way?

I can't seem to shake this fear despite getting the above 31 and 30 day negative results relating to me and the escort.

I don't want to take another test, if it isn't necessary.

Thanks for the help.

[Teak]

You've been coming here since April. You know symptoms don't mean a thing when it comes to HIV diagnoses. You were never at risk of contracting HIV.

[needadvice578]

Thanks for your response. I have been here since April because that is when I thought I became at risk. I understand that you think I have nothing to worry about.  By the advice of Dr. H (who I should have listened to from the beginning, but I was so irrational that I couldn't) and your advice, I will move on. Feelings of guilt do a lot to fan your fears of something that was never a reasonable possibility, i.e. infection despite protected sex, infection from being tested at an STD Clinic, etc.

I respect you for the time that you take to respond to people like me. Take care.

[needadvice578]

Although all the experts including Dr. H and Teak wrote that I was never at risk, I couldn't stop the worry. Every day, every little ache, blemish, cough, etc. convinced me that it had to do with HIV. If I didn't get HIV by my incident, maybe I got it by a dirty needle from the STD clinic. It interfered with my life and affected my work. The only way for me to get over my irrational fear was to test. So I took a final test at 15 weeks and, of course, the result was negative. I am finally free of the fear and can move on with my life.

The bottom line is this. The experts can tell you that you are not at risk. Some of you will take it at face value, but some of you will not and will become obsessed with the possibility of having contracted HIV. No matter what they say you will be convinced that every "symptom" is sign of your exposure.

To those of you who cannot accept the advice of the experts on this forum, try to take some measure of comfort in the knowledge that others in this forum have gone through exactly what you are going through. They had a low or no risk exposure but are very worried. They had to wait to take the test and when they did, they tested negative because they were never at risk in the first place. Just as you will test negative.

Good luck to all and thanks to Dr. H, Teak and the others on this forum who took the time to respond to my questions.