hello Dr. Robert,

it's really nice seeing you help out ppl in such a way, i envy your will. as for my question, i recently had intercourse with a hooker, a kazakhstani hooker if that would help, in dubai and my condom just got torn out of nowhere and luckily i withdrew my thing right away, the problem is what if she was hiv postive? although she told me that she takes the test every 2 to 3 months which i don't actually believe since such ppl are not really honest about anything, i really need to need an answer for this: what are my chances of getting infected? please note that it have been four days four days since that encounter and i haven't had any sign of any other std, everything is quite normal except for the depression and terror am living in. please help me out, i really need to know what to expect instead of just thinking too much before doing the test after three months. and what exactly is the window period? thanks in advance, i will donate for the cause, i respect your efforts to make this world better. thank you again.

Hi,

Your HIV-acquisition risk is very low, because your exposure was extremely brief and we do not know the status of your Kazakhstani hootchy-kootchy gal. (By the way I don't think hookers are any less honest than anyone else, including those who pay for their services!).

As for what to expect, I don't believe you should expect anything. Take a read through the archives of this forum. You should find the information there enlightening and encouraging. I'll advise that you should avoid being hypervigilant about "symptoms," worrying that each sniffle, headache or pimple is a sure sign you have HIV/AIDS. Symptoms are notoriously unreliable in predicting who is and is not HIV infected. The reason to worry or get tested should be based solely on HIV-exposure risk. You've had a very minimal risk. Get a single HIV-antibody test at the three-month mark (the window period is three months). The odds are astronomically in your favor that you did not acquire HIV from your Kazakhstani sexperience.

Thank you for your donation to the Robert James Frascino AIDS Foundation (www.concertedeffort.org). It's warmly appreciated. In return I'm sending you my good-luck karma that your definitive three-month HIV test is negative. (I'm quite confident it will indeed be negative!)

Good luck.

Dr. Bob