ARS / Early HIV Symptoms

[alsop1000]

Hi, I am a male who had one protected vaginal sexual encounter with a female prostitute in Singapore 8 days ago. From what I remember, the condom was put on correctly (almost sure), initially for about 3 - 4 minutes of oral sex from her (with the condom), and then for about 3 - 4 minutes of vaginal sex after which I ejaculated inside the condom from what I remember.
The big question is about 3.5 days after that encounter, I woke up with a sore throat, feverishness and weakness. The feverishness has last for about 4 days and almost gone, but the sore throat is not going anywhere, it is now day 5. It is very unsual for me to get this without a cold or runny nose or sneezing. The fever was there only for abot 1 day initially, and since there I haven't had actual fever but felt general feverish for a few days.
I am very worried that this is ARS. I hardly ever have casual sex with prostitutes, and have only 5 - 6 incidences in the last 3 years, all with protection. Can ARS start this early? What is the probability from female to male even after wearing a condom? She removed the condom carefully with a bunch of tissue paper. But it seemed to be fairly sticky.
I really appreciate your comments.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Greetings and welcome to the forum.  I can confirm the accurate replies you had on the community forum.

Having had condom protected sex, you were virtually 100% protected, even if your partner had HIV -- and statistically, it is unlikely she did.  Even without a condom, the average HIV transmission risk (female to male) for a single episode of vaginal sex is around 1 in 2,000; assuming 99% condom efficacy, that makes the transmission chance 1 in 200,000 -- and that's only if she had HIV, which she probably did not.  The large majority of CSWs in Singapore and other eastern Asian countries do not have HIV.  As for your symptoms, they started too soon to be due to HIV; a week is the minimum and usually it's 10-14 days.  And if it was HIV, the fever would continue for at least a week.

So as you were told on the community forum, if you caught anything from your commercial partner, it was just a common cold -- regardless of not having nasal symptoms.  If you remain concerned, you can always get HIV tested in a few weeks for extra reassurance -- but for sure you can expect negative results if you do so.

I hope this helps.  Best wishes--  HHH, MD

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Of course nobody can guarantee you aren't infected with HIV or another STD, whether from this exposure or another one.  But if I were in your situation, I would not hestitate to continue unprotected sex with my wife with no fear of infecting her or a newly conceived fetus.

[alsop1000]

Thanks, that really helps. To tell you honestly, I had started feeling anxiety from the moment after the act and so it was too much of a coincidence that I started experiencing the symptoms just a couple of days afterwards. One last question, do you think I should not have unprotected sex with my wife till I get tested? We are trying to have a baby, but I do not want to take any chance passing anything on to my wife or worst the baby.