You are here:

AIDS/Hiv Risk

Advertisement

Expert: - 3/25/2009


Question
QUESTION: Recently a woman touched my penis[urethra] while wearing the condom for me. I do not know if she had any bleeding cuts on her hands when she touched my penis. No sex was involved. When should I get tested?

ANSWER: Hello Avi!

If you did not have any penile infection or cuts there, nothing to be worried about HIV transmission. However, if you had, and as you do not know if she had any bleeding cuts on her hands when she touched your penis, it may pose risk of HIV transmission. In the later case, it's better to get tested. Ideally the experts suggest to get tested 2 months after exposure.

Sincere regards,
Gorkey

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Sir,
I did not have any infection or cut on my penis. But I am concerned about the urethra part where she might have touched. Though no cuts near urethra, I have read that it is high risk portion with/without cuts.

Answer
Dear Avi,

HIV can be absorbed directly across any mucous membrane, urethra for example. An infection, inflammation, or cut, etc. is not must. HIV can and does permeate intact uninfected mucous membranes (Frascino. J. R., 2006). Therefore, you're right. HIV can be transmitted through urethra.

Best regards,
Gorkey

Note: We are in the same platform, working together to find answers to our questions. So, I'll highly appreciate if you please don't address me 'sir'. :)

AIDS

All Answers

Answers by Expert:

Ask Experts

Volunteer

Gorkey Gourab

Expertise

Social and behavioral issues related to HIV transmission, sexually transmitted infections, Human Rights issues, rights of marginalized populations, gender and sexuality, research design and analysis related social & behavioral issues, , computer assisted qualitative data analysis and data management (using ATLAS.ti, ANTHROPAC, NVivo 8)

Experience

Specialized in Medical Anthropology. Working on Social and behavioral studies related to HIV transmission as well as Human Rights issues. Specialization in gender, sexuality, masculinity, behavioral studies related to HIV transmission. Qualitative research, programmatic and M&E experience with MSM, hijra (TG), indigenous groups, female sex workers for more than 7 years.

Organizations
International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) as Manager - M&E (Qualitative) with Center for HIV and AIDS

Publications
International peer-reviewed journals & technical papers: (1) Khan, S. I., Hussain, M. I., Parveen, S., Bhuiyan, M. I., Gourab, G., & Bhuiya, A. (2009). Living on the extreme margin: Social exclusion of the hijra in Bangladesh. Journal of health, population and nutrition. (2) Khan, S. I., Hussain, M. I., Gourab, G., Parveen, S., Bhuiyan, M. I., & Sikder, J. (2008). Not to stigmatize but to humanize sexual lives of the transgender (hijra): condom chat in the AIDS era. Journal of LGBT Health Research (Special issue: issues on male sexual behaviors and HIV risk in South Asia). Working papers: (1) Khan, S. I., Gourab, G., Ahmed, T., Sarker, G. F., Chowdhury, F. K., Ghosh, S., et al. (2009). Understanding the operational dynamics and possible HIV interventions for residence-based female sex workers in two divisional cities in Bangladesh. Dhaka, Bangladesh: NASP, Save the Children USA and icddr,b. Presentations in scientific meetings and conferences: (1) Khan, S. I., Hussain, M. I., Gourab, G. & Azim, T. (2011, 16 March 2011). Use of a new approach to count and access diverse groups of hijra for scaling up HIV-preventions services in Bangladesh. Poster presented at the 13th Annual Scientific Conference (ASCON XIII), Dhaka. (2) Khan, S. I., Pasa, K., Gourab, G., & Islam, A. (2007). Indigenous populations of Bangladesh: Living with risks and vulnerabilities to STIs/HIV. 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP). Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Education/Credentials
MSS (Anthropology), University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh

Awards and Honors
The Vanderbilt-UAB Fogarty International Center AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP)Scholarship for the training on HIV-AIDS related qualitative data analysis and manuscript writing (Center for Global Health, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA)

©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.