Am I at risk?? Are my symptoms ARS?.

Question

I was plaiting my aunts hair, hiv patient of abt 10yrs (on ARV’s), what we were using to style the hair the tip was sharp (which was her own) not as sharp as needle or pin, it fell down, i was trying to pick it up, then i felt a sharp pain on my thumb, their was no blood, i tried to squeeze , but still no blood, i’m not sure if i got pricked or not and if I mistakenly pricked her own scalp. Less than 24hrs i start having fever and headache. I was suppose to start my mentruation a day after the prick, that was when the fever (no night sweat), diarrhea  started, the period was since days late. All those symptoms went away after the period,except for slight headache after i travelled. 10days after the pin prick, i had nap on a couch, when i wake up, i realise between my  right side thumb and index finger was swollen which was not painful at the moment, but i keep checking and pressing it. At night it was a little painful, and i was lying down on the bare floor (tiles) with pillow. When i woke up in the morning, my neck (right) was feeling somehow, i asked a nurse to help me if it was swollen or have swollen lymph nodes, and she said it was not swollen, I travelled, the journey was 3hrs, and took a nap in the car, which often press and check my neck for swollen lymph nodes, wchich i didnt find any. In the evening my trapezius muscle was swollen. That made me worried that i keep checking for swollen lymph nodes in my body, i found 2 on my neck, 2 in groin, which i dnt know if are swollen or not, i can not just feel them with out searching and pressing hard to find them. Because of the exposure i have been having sleepless night and checking every minute for ARS. I cant take the test its just 12days.

Nafisat · Answer

Thanks for your respond.. I was just anxious because i’m 100% sure she’s hiv positive, and i felt the prick on my thumb, then with the sumptoms

AnxiousNoMore · Answer

This answers all of your HIV questions, and if you can think of any more just reread about the 3. You had zero risk therefore  testing is irrelevant to your situation because you had zero risk. HIV is a fragile virus, which is instantly inactivated in air and also in saliva which means it is effectively dead so it can't infect from touching, external rubbing or oral activities. It doesn't matter if you and they were actively bleeding or had cuts at the time either because the HIV is effectively dead.  
Only 3 adult risks are the following:
1. unprotected penetrating vaginal with a penis
2. unprotected penetrating anal sex with a penis
3. sharing needles that you inject with.
The only way to get HIV is if you did one of the 3. The situation you describe is a long way from any of these 3.
Even with blood, lactation, cuts, rashes, burns, etc the air or the saliva does not allow inactivated virus to infect from touching, external rubbing or oral activities. This HIV science is 40 years old and very well established, so no detail that you can add to your encounter will change it from zero risk. Because of all the research statistics, doctors have calculated the risk from what you describe to be less than that of being hit by a meteor, therefore no one will get HIV from what you did in the next 40 years of your life either.
If you didn't have one of the 3 then you are just worrying about your own hiv theory - which is unrealistic for you to think that can become reality - so you should move on back to your happy life instead. 
The tip of the plastic you are concerned about is not hollow so you had a non-event. Your "symptoms" could be in your imagination from fear since you are very anxious. You did not have "an exposure" so need to move on and stop trying to do a doctor's job.
You do not have any medical training, so you should stop poking your neck and irritating it, then claiming in error that you have diagnosed a problem.

Am I at risk?? Are my symptoms ARS?.

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