worried about recent encounter

[worried222400]

Dear Doc,

I have been to Indonesia recently and in Jakarta I had unprotected oral and protected vaginal sex with 2 prostitutes, after 4 weeks i got tested and was negative. Then after 5 weeks I got mild sore throat and pain in my ear which is there for 2 weeks now. I though it will go on its own but it did not. There is no pain in my throat but very slight scratchy feeling....I dont know what it is, I do not have cough and then there was some pain in my jaw as well. I got worried and ordered a home testing kit from IVD Global and after 50 days I tested and I was negative. What are the chances I have HIV, I am very worried and am not able to sleep....Kindly advice

[worried222400]

Doctor if you can reply in a comprehensive manner, that would be really great, its a request

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Your worry is ina ppropriate and I will not feed it.  Trust your tests.  EWH

[worried222400]

Doctor,

Since you have mentioned that there is a partial overlap with the acute retrovial syndrome, can you tell me in detail what does that mena, i had the last risky encounter on the 11 of September and my sore throat is from the 10 of October, but very mild , I have not taken any medication for the same...since you have mentiones there is slight overlap I am very worried now (i don not have fever at all but just had bad stomach in between because i was travelling a lot), are there any chances of HIV infection because of the throat and ear pain thing. Please reply ....at 4 weeks i had a ELISA laboratory test and at 6.5 weeks home test both of which came negative

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to the Forum.  I am not familiar with the test you mention but your exposure was low risk for HIV acquisition.  HIV is very rarely if ever transmitted through oral sexual contact and your vaginal sex was condom protected and therefore virtually no risk as well.  Your symptoms, which have some partial overlap with the acute retroviral syndrome are too late to be typical and do not include many of the manifestations on the infection.  Finally,  while I am not familiar with the test you have used, a negative result at 7 weeks following exposure is further strong evidence that you do not have HIV.  At this point, your chances of having HIV for all of the reasons mentioned above are vanishingly  low.  I would not worry and hope that my comments will help to relieve your anxieties.  Take care.  EWH

[worried222400]

I also has slight pain in my eyes for the last couple of daya which comes and goes after a day or so, Is 50 day negative test reliable or do I need to get tested again after 3 months