Hello,

I would like to ask following quick questions:

1® ARS symptom may occur after people get HIV, but what is the ratio which is normally accepted by public? After I searched on some forums, I have learned some ratio like 40%, 50% or even 90% of people who acquire HIV may have ARS symptoms, so I got confused at same time.

2. Without any treatment, can any ARS symptom be completely gone in very short time, say, no more than 12 hours?

3. Are there any documented/reported cases of HIV transmission through getting hand-job worldwide?

I had received unprotected hand-job from masseuse (she used massage oil and no obvious cuts on her hands) during erotic massage 5 weeks ago and got some symptoms like ARS symptoms (low fever and rash). I was recommended to check out ¡HIV TRANSMISSION Guidelines for Assessing Risk, the fifth edition, 2005¡ by Canadian AIDS Society. After I read relevant content in this really good resource and realized it should be ¡No Risk¡, but because I think some information in this racecourse might be out of date, I am still not sure if it is necessary for me to take HIV test and I ask the questions above.

Thanks a lot!

Thanks for your questions,

There is no risk from the situation you're talking about. None. Hand-jobs do not transmit HIV.

For HIV to transmit we need HIV positive body fluid to come out of someone's body and go immediately/directly into someone else's body. There is no way this will happen from a hand job. There just isn't.

As for the rest of your questions, it may be frustrating to hear but it doesn't matter how many people get ARS.. ARS-like stuff can happen for all sorts of reasons. The only ways to know if someone has HIV is to 1) figure out if there was risk and 2) get tested!

Hope this helps!

Erik