Ars symptoms and HIV risk

[Scaredbad2010]

I orignally posted n wrong forum..now here it goes again. On August 19th I was with a man, I am female. He performed oral sex on me .. No protection. We then engaged in foreplay without clothes where he rubbed his penis around and on my vaginal entrance for some time. No penetration at all. Could pre cum have infected me? We then proceeded to have vaginal sex protected with a condom. After encounter condom was intact. I thought I was safe. Exactly 4 weeks later I come down with the flu. 101.5 fever that lasted around 24 hours, swollen sore lymph nodes on right side of neck, body aches, no appetite and chills. By Sat 9/21 felt fine. Very stressed thou. Sun 9/22, joints in 3 fingers on left hand became very sore , proceeded by elbow and ankle pain. Monday they were not as bad but then in the afternoon I developed a measly rash that last approx 2 days at most. Went to ER on Monday, scared and they did a CBC. White blood cell count normal but lymphocytes low and neutrophils high. No fever. On Tuesday 9/22 I had a rapid HIV test which was negative. This was however only 33 days post exposure. I'm convinced I have HIV... Why do you think? How accurate is the test at this point and was my encounter at all risky? This would be the only instance I could have put myself in danger. Please help.. I'm scared, can't eat can't focus.. Just want to sleep I am so stressed!! Thank u

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

No.  You can't get STDs from the exposures you describe.

[Scaredbad2010]

Thank you... Was well worth the 2 nd donation for your response:-). Now I just need to relax so I don't cause real damage to my mind and body. !! Not to sound ridiculous but am I at risk for any other STDS from this encounter?

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Welcome.  You didn't need to post the question a second time.  I had already responded in the STD forum (although I pointed out the error).

Your initial reaction ("I would have not thought more about it...") was exactly right.  This was a no-risk exposure with respect to HIV.  And your symptoms came on too late to be due to HIV; 10-20 days is the norm.  Most important, your negative test result shows you were not infected.  The standard HIV antibody tests, including the rapid test, pick up more than 95% of new HIV infection by 33 days after exposure.

If you remain concerned, return to your doctor for another HIV test 6 weeks after the exposure, when a negative test is 100% reliable.  It is not a realistic possibility that you have HIV and you can expect that result to also be negative.  (You could also contact your partner, tell him your concern and ask him to be tested.)

If you spend some time reviewing other threads in this forum, you will find many questions pretty much exactly like yours.  The bottom line is that test results ALWAYS outweigh symptoms and exposure history in judging the chance someone has HIV.  Your negative test overrides your symptoms -- and for sure the exposure history, which carried no significant HIV risk.

Really, mellow out.  You don't have it.

Regards--  HHH, MD