Correct about the syphilis statement. Glad we could help. Take care and stay safe. EWH
OK, thanks (im assuming the testing you refer to is the syphilis testing)
As i will have no further posts let me wish you a happy new year now.
Glad I could help. It is now time for you to put your concerns behind you. If you do not develop a lesion on your penis in the next 3 weeks, syphilis is not a concern either. If your anxiety forces you to seek testing, doing so at about 1 month following your contact will provide the reassurance you need. EWH
Doctor,
Thanks for your detailed answer. Given that there was still a small chance I was infected anxiety drove me to find the girl and ask her to get tested. We went together in the night to the clinic ER where she gave the blood but the lab was closed so the results were not available until the next morning. She picked them up by herself (while I was working) and showed them to me later that night - negative for HIV 1 and 2. Strangely the clinic also gave her the rapid test strip used which I thought should be disposed of. She said they give it for people who are making visa applications. Part of me is suspicious that in west africa negative test results maybe "can be bought" (although I havent heard of this practice) and that I should have gone with her to pick up the results, but maybe thats just an extension of my current anxieties. She even offered to go back to the clinic with me and verify the results are true but then i started thinking they would just lie to me at the clinic if they had been paid. I don’t know why im thinking like this as she has been nothing but cooperative, and was even keen to see my recent test results, maybe im still in shock.
Also, I have been vaccinated for Hep B so im not worried about that but when should I take a VDRL test and are there any other STD's I should be worried about?
Thanks again. You have been very helpful during what has been a real ordeal for me.
Welcome to the Forum. You are correct, unprotected sex with a commercial sex worker in West Africa is a relatively risky exposure. That she was menstruating does not particularly increase risk for infection sense among infected persons there is substantial HIV present in genital secretions. I'll go straight to your questions.
1. There are no day-by-day figures as to the accuracy of DUO (or any other kind of ) tests however results at 28 days are highly reliable. thus at 28 days I would guess that your results are about 95% accurate. Your results definitively prove that your respiratory infection was unrelated to HIV- if it had been your test would have been positive.
2. If you have access to DUO tests get another at 28 days or beyond. If you don't, you can be completely sure with a standard HIV antibody test at 8 weeks following the exposure you described.
3. If she were tested at this time and found to be negative, you could be sure that you are not at risk for HIV from the exposure you described.
4. Both the DUO and other standard HIV antibody test would reliably detect both HIV-1 and HIV-2 infections, thus you can have confidence that testing would not miss another infection.
I hope these comments are helpful. With a negative test at 25 days it is most unlikely that you were infected by the contact you describe. Good luck with your pursuit of sobriety as well. EWH
I forgot to ask the following question also:
d) What are the implications for me of HIV 2 prevalance in west africa? The test I took includes HIV 2 but im not sure that the Ag part of the test is designed to detect HIV 2. So im concerned the test may not be as sensitive to HIV 2 as it is to HIV 1.
Thanks again.