Brief Answer: Do not worry but be careful in future. Detailed Answer: Hi and welcome to health care magic, I understand your query. HIV is indeed a grave problem. But please do not worry as the sore throat in HIV does not occur like this. I will explain to you a little bit about HIV so that you may protect yourself from this disease in future and also decide about some tests now. HIV is a virus and is acquired by many routes. The main route in India is by heterosexual contact meaning contact of a male with a female. Other routes are male homosexuality and from mother to the baby during pregnancy and delivery. Once the virus gets into the body, it is smart and it camouflages with our cells. So the body does not recognize it as an alien and does not mount a defensive response. In some cases the body may mount a defensive response and try to kill it, but it is unable to do so as we do not have mechanisms to kill it. In this phase the infected person may get symptoms like fever or malaise or joint pain. These symptoms are not specific and are seen in many diseases. It is difficult to detect the virus by standard test at this time as the tests detect body's immune response which is not yet developed. The tests that directly detect the virus are positive for a very short time initially and later become negative as the virus has entered the cells and is no longer free. We call this the latent stage when the virus is hidden. Unfortunately some people in India use this fact to claim that they can cure HIV. The virus then slowly destroys our defensive cells, means it destroys the body's soldiers and the tests now become positive. When the CD4 cells, our defensive cells are destroyed, we develop different infections which are difficult to cure. Ultimately the person succumbs to these infections. Condoms do offer some protection but are not 100% protective. So the best defense against this is a monogamous relationship with a faithful partner. Please remember that the girl that participated in this episode may have had similar encounters before. As of now, do not worry as chances of transmission are low with a single contact and the risk of transmission is more from male to female rather than female to male. I suggest that you meet a physician [ an MD medicine or a skin and VD specialist] to discuss this in greater details get an HIV test done after 3-4 months to rule this out. If you are suspicious that the girl may have been positive, prophylactic use of anti retroviral drugs may be used to decrease chances of infection. Remember that the risk of infection is low with a single exposure, but repeated exposures increase it. So it is better to be cautious. Hope this helped. Feel free to ask any more queries and I am here to help. Thanks and have a good day. Dr Madhuri Bagde Consultant Gynecologist.

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Brief Answer: Relax chances are low. Detailed Answer: Hello and thanks for the query, The infection was most likely bacterial as it has responded to antibiotics. It may have been viral like flu. Upper respiratory tract infections are very common and may occur from innumerable causes so it is difficult to pinpoint a cause and neither is it needed as most are self resolving or covered by minimum drugs. Please stop thinking about this now. The chance of infection with single exposure is very low. Maybe the girl is not infected and even if she is, every contact does not transmit or cause infection. So the chance is less. I suggest a test after 3-4 months as I have already explained that it takes time for test to come positive. I understand that it is very difficult to live with doubts in mind but it is just for three months and most likely it will be negative. Think of this as a challenge that life poses before us just to make us understand how important our health is. The chance of transmission from male to female is higher and it is less likely for male to get infected and also the girl may not be positive at all. So why think about it. The sore throat is not likely due to HIV as I have already said. So relax about that. Just wait for three months with a calm mind and have faith in yourself. Hope I was able to help you. I am always here for any more queries. Dr Madhuri

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Brief Answer: You are welcome! Detailed Answer: Thanks a lot. The pleasure is mine. Dr Madhuri Bagde

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