You are here:

AIDS/Am I susceptible to HIV and other STD's??

Advertisement

Expert: - 10/3/2011


Question
HI there,

I am 27 years old and never had sex until early 2010 and since then I had sex with 11 different women (all call girls/prostitutes). Recently I had sex (vaginal intercourse) with a street hooker whom I don't know (it happened by chance) and accidentally my condom broke during the play (she was on top) and I didn't notice till I withdrew from her. After seeing it I was like - "Oh Gosh, what the fuck happened? How it happened? Blah Blah were running through my mind. Upon asking her whether she has any kind of disease, she said she was disease free and told me not to worry. The problem is that I cannot trust her sayings  (as she is a prostitute) and on that I had a lesion or a blister on my penis which makes me further mad. I am dying to get tested but upon research and what I learnt during my high school, it takes three weeks to six months for the antibodies to be discovered. What are my chances to get HIV and other STD's. Please help me out as this is killing me and has occupied my mind since then. I stay in Dubai, UAE.

Thanks and Regards,
Afnan

Answer
Hello Afnan,

Female sex workers are considered as one of the most at risk populations. Considering that you have experienced a condom break during vaginal intercourse, you really do not know the HIV or STI status of her and since she is a commercial sex worker she will have high client turnover.

There is a potential risk of HIV and/or STI transmission. About HIV testing time-frame, you are right. There are also a number of asymptomatic STIs, for which you need to consult doctors.

Please consult a clinical specialist as soon as possible to get proper direction in this regards.

Sorry for my delayed response.

Regards,
Gorkey

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.