Dr Bob,

I just wanted to Say a big Thank you to you!

Around the end of Oct 07 I had a condom breakage whilst having sex with a Working Girl; i must have been in her for less than 2 mins, then a quick change of Condom. At the time no thought of HIV, but that soon changed!

I must have read through every web page on the net, read your site every day for the last three months.

I also must have head every symptom under the Sun related to HIV etc.

Having just moved To Dubai in September, HIV is a Taboo here, don't know why, but it is.

To make it worse i had to go for a Medical to qualify for residency. You guessed it that includes an HIV / Hep test.

I had the test a few days ago, I presume they tested for HIV and others, and it was clear, and i was told i dont have anything, and am fit for Residency!

At the 7th week mark, i found a supplier for AwareOral (similar to Oral Quick) i had to purchase this at a high price from a DR, as such products are not available at chemists etc. The result clear.

In summary I think the key issue, is I was being safe, I had an accident, but to others who are reading dont look for Symptoms (you will feel like you have them). Just get tested, it is the only way!

Also I have done a few charity fund raisers in the UK, but would love to bring about more awareness to the authorities here, not in terms of treatment, but to educate the public about precaution etc! This episode has really taught me a lesson, and it is remarkable, Individuals who write back to worried people, to stay calm, laying out all the options. What is amazing is the way in which you take time to write back to everyone and often the same answers!

Everybody should just read the archives the answers are all in there!

Thanks again!

Hello,

WOO-HOO and congratulations!

Thanks for taking the time to write in and share your great news and newfound insights! You've actually read my site every day for the last three months???? WOWZA! Well, a great man once said, "Repetition is the mother of all learning." If he was correct, you should have learned a lot, because frequently I feel like I'm the director of "The Department of Redundancy Department" answering the same worries about "every symptom under the sun related to HIV." (If the worried wells ever did experience the full brunt of symptoms we HIVers have had to put up with, I doubt they would make such a farfetched claims!)

I applaud your efforts to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and promote HIV prevention efforts in Dubai. Making HIV/AIDS "taboo" or ignoring it only further fans the flames of this volatile pandemic. Over the past quarter century, countries that pretended HIV/AIDS didn't exist or didn't affect them are now paying the price of their self-delusion with skyrocketing HIV rates, which will have catastrophic and tragic consequences for their nations going forward.

Finally I want to reinforce your message to all posters to check the archives. Clearly 99.9% of the questions I receive on a continual basis from throughout the cyber-universe I have already addressed multiple times! Why do rightwing, home-schooled, miserably married Republicans always think they are the only ones to have adulterous sex with barely legal cross-dressing transgendered lesbian Mormon midgets with webbed feet and a penchant for narcolepsy while swinging on a trapeze and singing the Star Spangled Banner???? Don't they realize lots of other red-state GOPers have similar proclivities due to pent-up sexual frustrations stemming from years of self-denial and sexual misinformation?!?

And now on to the next hopeless confused worried wreck . . . let's see . . . oh yes, "grandma farted in her Barcalounger and then I sat in the same chair and now I have every symptom under the sun related to HIV and I'm too afraid to test. Help me. For god's sake, help me!" And so it goes.

Dr. Bob