Dr. Bob,

I'm a 32 yr old married man and father of a beautiful 2 yr old little angel.

Recently, I had an encounter with a sex worker that I later found out to be HIV+. We had unprotected oral (I received), protected vaginal (the condom seemed intact. I think I would have noticed if it broke, correct?) and she kissed me. 3 days after the incident I had an extremely sore throat with puss on my tonsils and a fever of 101. I was given antibiotics and the fever went away within 18 hours and the throat got better as I took the pills.

My questions are:

If the condom was intact did I have a risk?

Should I worry about the oral sex? I didn't notice any blood in her mouth.

Would a 6 week negative test give me a good idea of my status?

Do I need to test further than 3 months?

Was my sore throat and fever a symptom of ARS? Could it happen 3 days after??

I'm totally freaking about this so your help is appreciated.

Thanks, J

Hello J,

The answers to all your questions are in the archives. (Have a look!) So I'll only respond briefly and direct you to the archives for more detailed explanations if needed, OK?

1. No, as long as the condom was used properly and didn't break. HIV cannot permeate intact latex. No way. No how.

2. Oral sex carries an extremely low risk for HIV transmission.

3. HIV-antibody tests taken prior to the three-month mark are not considered to be definitive or conclusive. Your negative six-week test is encouraging, but not conclusive.

4. No.

5. I cannot diagnose the cause of your symptoms in retrospect, nor can I evaluate them over the Internet. What I can tell you is that symptoms related to HIV ARS (acute retroviral syndrome) manifest themselves in two to three weeks after primary infection. Consequently your symptoms at three days are most likely completely unrelated.

Dr. Bob