I'd like to know what are the chances of contracting HIV if :

1) one were to swallow some vaginal fluid from an HIV positve woman

2) one were to swallow a small amount of urine from an HIV positive woman

3) some vaginal fluid from an HIV positive woman came into contact with an open wound on one's hand.

4) a man were to touch the head of his penis with fingers covered in vaginal fluid from an HIV positive woman.

If a person has recently become infected with HIV, would a sore throat, runny nose, swollen glands on neck, mild fatigue and a cough that produces dark yellow phlegm be typical early signs that would start to appear about 3-4 days after HIV exposure? If so, how long does this stage last and what are the next symptoms that one should expect to arise?
Finally, how soon after HIV exposure can one acurately test for the presence of HIV?

Any replies would be greatly appreciated.

Have a read through the sticky at the top of this board and most of your questions will probably be answered.

HIV does not live in urine, therefore, this is not something to worry about. Most of your other questions about possible exposures are theoretically possible but I don't think there has been a single case reported of anyone contracting the virus in the ways you have described.

Testing 3 months from the date of your exposure will give you an accurate result.

From what you have said though, you don't have anything to worry about.

Thanks for your reply. Just one question : Wouldn't touching the head of the penis with fingers covered in the vaginal fluid of an HIV positive woman be just as risky as having unprotected intercourse with the same woman?
If not, why?

No, simply because HIV has to get into your bloodstream. Also, the virus itself is really fragile and has to live in certain conditions or it will become weak and almost immediately die. There's a very big difference between the two.

No, simply because HIV has to get into your bloodstream. Also, the virus itself is really fragile and has to live in certain conditions or it will become weak and almost immediately die. There's a very big difference between the two. if what you say is true and hiv is fragile than why is there not a cure if it dies as easy as you say. i am sorry but to believe all that you here about aids is very nieve. truth is if they told you the real truth they would put this country in a severe panic. people are contracting this virus everyday in large numbers and have no idea how they became infected. explain that?

The virus dies when it comes into contact with the air. The reason it can be transmitted so easily via sexual intercourse and IV needles is that these activities prevent the fluids containing the virus from coming into contact with the air.

In case you didn't know, during intercourse, any fluids are clearly protected by the organs participating, therefore, the virus has no oxegyn to break up molecules and kill the microrganisms etc etc.
HIV conspiracy theories are my pet peeve :eek: but everyone's entitled to thier own opinion
Good Day Cedar ;)
-Sarah

Dear Cedar: I think you questions are relatively good ones but a little naive. As stated, HIV is fragile outside of the system where is it able to hide, replicated, and mutate. That system is the human body. Once outside of the human body, when it is exposed to air, oxygen, sunlight, and all of the elements that comprise the external environment, it doesn't survive.
One of the reasons that HIV is of growing concern is that, according to the latest data, while the United States has done a fairly good job of educating people, there are third world countries (Africa, India, Thailand) where, in part because of a failure to fund AIDS education and because of cultural issues, HIV/AIDS is surging forward. In addition, because of those cultural issues, the people who are contracting the disease are women and girls. IN addition, it is also true that in some of the areas of the world where sex is a significant economic issue (Thailand, Nepal, the Phillipines), where children are sold for the purposes of sex, HIV/AIDS is also an issue because most of the men refuse to wear condoms.
I, too, have never been comfortable with the conspiracy rationale. I don't think it's provocative enough. I think, also, that, as long as you can blame HIV/AIDS on a conspiratorial process, you remove the fact that each person has to assume some element of responsibility for their own actions. No, it does not follow that I think people who have HIV/AIDS deserve it. I know that I don't and neither do some of my friends. But, given the information we have now, and the methods we have of protection, it dumfounds me that the rate of HIV is increasing in New York and San Francisco predominately because of the use of crystal meth. chris

But, given the information we have now, and the methods we have of protection, it dumfounds me that the rate of HIV is increasing in New York and San Francisco predominately because of the use of crystal meth. chris
I read an article in Newsweek about the crystal meth/HIV link in SF and NY, and it's just amazing and confusing. I read that there are a handful of men who go there and knowingly engage in intercourse with positive men. I just wish and hope that somehow, they can rack up enough counseling/education to help ease some of the numbers.
-Sarah

Dear Cedar: I think you questions are relatively good ones but a little naive. As stated, HIV is fragile outside of the system where is it able to hide, replicated, and mutate. That system is the human body. Once outside of the human body, when it is exposed to air, oxygen, sunlight, and all of the elements that comprise the external environment, it doesn't survive.
One of the reasons that HIV is of growing concern is that, according to the latest data, while the United States has done a fairly good job of educating people, there are third world countries (Africa, India, Thailand) where, in part because of a failure to fund AIDS education and because of cultural issues, HIV/AIDS is surging forward. In addition, because of those cultural issues, the people who are contracting the disease are women and girls. IN addition, it is also true that in some of the areas of the world where sex is a significant economic issue (Thailand, Nepal, the Phillipines), where children are sold for the purposes of sex, HIV/AIDS is also an issue because most of the men refuse to wear condoms.
I, too, have never been comfortable with the conspiracy rationale. I don't think it's provocative enough. I think, also, that, as long as you can blame HIV/AIDS on a conspiratorial process, you remove the fact that each person has to assume some element of responsibility for their own actions. No, it does not follow that I think people who have HIV/AIDS deserve it. I know that I don't and neither do some of my friends. But, given the information we have now, and the methods we have of protection, it dumfounds me that the rate of HIV is increasing in New York and San Francisco predominately because of the use of crystal meth. chris i just find it a bit hard to believe that if the virus dies easily outside the body then you would think that they would have a cure based on that assumption. i just cant for the life of me bring myself to believe that with all the technology and resorces today that there is nothing that can be done to stop this problem in its tracks if you think about it people every year get aids and with no explanation on how they got it. sounds a bit fishy to me. please dont take what i say the wrong way on this issue but regardless of what they tell us today on how you can and cant catch it, i dont believe it. and am very cautious in my travels. believe me i have enough of my own health problems that will probably end up killing me i really dont wish to add aids to the list of them. do i blame the people who have aids? absoulutely not. but who i do blame is our government.which i wont get into that right now.. i dont look at myself as being nieve. but someone who looks at things in this world for what they are. and someone who truly believes. one must look out for themselves. because no one else will. i also feel that all these billions of tax payers dollars that our lovely government is so freely spending overseas to cater to those scum countries should have been spent here like on research i guess that just shows you where our own people stand in the eyes of our own government...

They are not scum countries. What makes one race or class of people inferior to the other?People need our help and its because of lack of funds and education over in the countries you refer to that Hiv/Aids is not being kept in check.You complain of your health troubles,at least you have a chance in life,others do not.

This is such an overwhelming topic...certainly, there are those of us who sometimes resent the vast amounts that are spent overseas to combat this pandemic. However, if we don't, who will? Remember, we comprise ten percent of the world's population and consume 90% of its assets.

Simultaneously, people who die from heart disease, various forms of cancer, neotal birth defects, automobile accidents, etc. etc., have to be included in the equation. No one disease is more important than the person who has it.

That HIV is fragile outside of the body doesn't mean that it isn't the Einstein of viruses inside the body. If the damned virus would stay in one place and not mutate or reproduce so virulently, then, sure, the overall research affect would be significantly different. On the other hand, you really do need to consider where we are now and where we were twenty-five yrs ago. I haven't done the research and don't have the data, but considering the time lapse between when the disease was first discovered and now, we have walked a million miles.

I can remember in 1980, the brother (a waiter in New York CIty) of a friend of mine, dieing of a strange ailment that resembled pneumonia. No one dies from pneumonia, I thought, and that was the beginning.

Finally, I think that blaming the goverment (not necessarily a government I voted for, by the way) defeats the purpose of personal responsibility. We have an extraordinary opportunity to care for people, to learn about living, and to learn about dieing. Not the best way, I'm sure, but one of the ways, nevertheless. I spent time in a leper colony in Uganda - I learned an incredible amount of informatio without opening a book and new that Tretracycline (an inexpensive antibiotic) could erradicate the disease. But I learned about myself, my abilities, my fears, my repulsions, my weaknesses. ANd, gosh, I am really better becuase of it. Likewise, I am a better person having dallied with this devil than I may have been had I not danced at all. chris

I absolutley agree with you Chris. If each and every country was given the ability to run an industrialized nation, filled with tons of education and health care, this world would probably be in worse shape then it is now. The truth is, over in third world countries, there are men who believe myths that infecting virgins w/HIV will cure them of the disease. There are women who do not use protection because being fertile is a sign of stature. Over here, we're lucky enough to have the tools and the education, over there they are not...so what better thing to do with our money then send it where things are the worst? I agree that more research needs to be done, and more programs need to be funded, but unfortunatley, there are places that need it more. And then amount of money we spend on family planning programs etc in other countries is much less then that of what we should, or what others do.
I am a firm believer in helping others.
And Chris, I would love to hear more about your travel to Uganda.
God Bless everyone.
-Sarah

Sarah: In 1982, I was asked (along with 31 other volunteers) to participate in a medical missionary team to go to Uganda to innoculate the children of Uganda against polio, pertussis, whooping cough, etc. We were subsequently divided into 4 8-member teams and the team I was assigned to went to the most rural, the out-of-the-way village of all the teams (it took us five hours to drive the 50 miles to get there.) I say, this because, if you knew me, you'd understand that I thrive on comfort and safety so going to Bundi Budgyo on the other side of the Ruwenzori Mountaines, was definately not a plan that I had determined for myself.

You also have to know that I have bargained with God my whole life: I was willing do to His bidding but I didn't want to go to Africa. So, when we landed in Nairobi Airport, Kenya, I said that this was OK but I want to go someplace comfortable. When we drove the distance from Fort Portal into Bundi Budgyo, I new that there was no electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing. And, when I realized, the stench of the village was overwhelming, I asked that it not rain. And when it rained, a huge rainbow stretched from one end of the village to the other. I then stopped bargaining.

The first innoculation center was at a leper colony. And, every day for the next month and a half we either returned to an innoculation center or went to a new one. On some occassions, we went in the local clinics and hospital to work there.

We were seriously understaffed and undersupplied. For example, we had no rubber glove or other safety equipment. We were innoculating three children on each 5 cc syringe (without benefit of boiling water). We did wound care and dressing changes without benefit of any sterile techniques or bandages. At least two us got needle sticks recapping syringes.

But - I could stand at the door of our hut (two rooms - one for the two men and the other for the six women) and listen to the sounds of drums announcing our arrival. I held dieing children who were ill from a wasting disease I could not name. I could stand in the center of the village and look into the distance and see the plains of Zaire. And, in the summer of 1982, I was dreadfully naive about this new disease and the impact it would have on my life.

When we flew out of Entebbe, out to Nairobi airport, and then into Amsterdam, eight of us rented two cars and we drove into Amsterdam and went to the home of Anne Frank. I had a chance to sit in the window ledge overlooking the garden and back yard of her home and realized that there is such an incredibly fragile aspect to life but it is all good!

Thanks, Sarah, for asking. Chris

Wow, that's amazing! I have a friend going over to Tanzania, and I also had a professor who did something called "beads of life" with children from Uganda.
It sounds like an experience of a lifetime. I'm a creature of comfort as well, so I can imagine how scary it must've been at first, but it seems to be an excellent expierience for you. We need more people like you!
-Sarah

Listen, I wasn't special when I went there. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I was really glad to get the hell out of there (although I'd go back if I had the chance). But, everyone laughed when I tried to pack my hairdryer, and, when I couldn't shower daily, I was a mess. But I got through it and, as you said, it was a great experience. Thanks, SArah, for letting me share. chris