Dear Doctor,

I am a male from India. I made out with my girl friend with whom I had been for 10 months, with whom I later broke up. She said she was negative but I am taking the worst case scenario because of certain reasons.

1.) We never had sex. My only exposures were possibly of two kinds. a.) that I kissed her near the crotch area. Nowhere near the orifice, but somewhere near the clit. She was standing I was kneeling so whatever was exposed. This happened for a very short duration, say 2 seconds. b.) I might have touched my penis after touching her crotch (which might have had some vaginal fluids on it).

2.) I got an anti-body test done after 24 weeks, which came out negative. The report was given in 30 minutes and the test was done for 2 types of anti-bodies. The kit used was called 'comb-aids'.

How would you evaluate my situation? This incident happened in 2009. I know that the testing window period is 12 weeks and I was way outside it when I got tested, but I am from India and I am not very sure if they were following the same timeline / window period here in 2009. That's why I have described the kind of test.

I would be extremely extremely grateful to you for your reassurance. Thanks a ton and May God bless you for the wonderful work you are doing.

Hello- Your risk was negligible in the exposure you described and your test results (whether done in India or the US) are accurate. You are not infected with HIV. Take care,

LHW