Expert: Terry B - 6/16/2007

Question
QUESTION: Hello, i am HIV positive and when very drunk the other night my girlfriend who is negative gave me a blow job for about 5-7 minutes....I didnt ejaculate in her mouth because i realised what we were doing and i told her to stop and we put a condom on.....She had a really bad sore throat (from a cold) and i am worried that this has increased her risk of catching something from me...i feel really guilty and i am really scared for her and she is also very scared....i just wondered if this sore throat would increase her risk of catching hiv???? She has no open wounds in her mouth and she has no cold sores etc...although the sore throat was pretty bad.  I dont know if there was any pre-cum, i was really drunk and i cant be sure...i am circumsized...i dont know if this makes a difference.
Please help, we are really panicking, should we be????
thankyou

ANSWER: Dear John:

Peace.  Please scroll through the previous answers here on risk of transmission from receptive fellatio.  Yes, there is increased risk due to her throat infection, no the documented risks are not as significant as other activities.

Please see your health provider for presumptive testing if that will allay your fears a bit; be aware that there is up to a 10% chance of false positive (saying positive when not actually infected) but fairly good reliability on negative test results.  Again, your health provider and/or testing and counseling center is where you should have a more detailed conversation.  I would advise seeing a health professional to address your girlfriend's sore throat as well.

Hope this helps,

Terry

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

QUESTION: Thanks for your prompt reply.  My girlfriends sore throat went a couple of days later, it was not an infection but just from a passing cold....If she gets a test today it will be 30 days after the incident and im worried that if it is negative then yes she will get a repeat test after 3 months but im worried we will both feel much happier and then the test at 3 months could be positive. how reliabe is a test after 30 days? thankyou

Answer
Dear John:

Again, please see your health provider or testing center for presumptive testing; by this I mean a PCR qualitative or p24 antigen testing or whatever might be available to you.  The reliability depends on the test, please re-read my previous answer for warning about false positives.

Best to you and yours.

Terry