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Author Topic: Can HIV be transmitted through contact with syphilis?  (Read 3347 times)

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Offline indigo84

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Can HIV be transmitted through contact with syphilis?
« on: December 07, 2010, 03:38:43 pm »
Hi all,

Thanks in advance for any answers I get. I've read through the postings on the site and responses are always clear and well-informed.

I recently had an unprotected sexual encounter with a male during a group sex session. Things get a tad complicated, but I'll try to be clear.

Condoms were in use, but at one point one of the males involved put his penis into me without a condom on. He got a few thrusts before someone noticed he was bare and told him to leave. He didn't ejaculate in or on me.

Four weeks later, I'm diagnosed with a syphilitic chancre on the outside of my anus. I haven't had sex with anybody since that incident, and before that my sex life was pretty barren for awhile, so I'm 99% certain I contracted it from my "invader".

As I'm trying to track this guy down again to tell him he's got syphilis, I find out that he's HIV+. Now I'm obviously freaking out.

My results from the HIV and Syph tests are pending, but I've been treated for the syphilis on the assumption that that's what I've got.

My question is: what is the likelihood that I've contracted HIV from this individual, even given that he didn't have a chance to ejaculate? How easily spread is HIV through contact with syphilis alone? I'm just looking for some info, basically.  I'd rather be pretty sure I'm poz or neg rather than not know at all.
« Last Edit: December 07, 2010, 03:43:04 pm by indigo84 »

Offline RapidRod

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Re: Can HIV be transmitted through contact with syphilis?
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2010, 03:46:17 pm »
You don't need ejaculation to transmit HIV. The only way to know your status is by testing. 3 months post exposure is when you will be able to obtain a conclusive negative test result. 

Offline indigo84

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Re: Can HIV be transmitted through contact with syphilis?
« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2010, 03:50:06 pm »
Hi, and thanks for your answer.

HIV tests are pending, and I'm aware that you don't need semen to be infected.
I'm just wondering basically how worried I should be. Are there any stats out there concerning HIV and syphilis co-infection? How easily can a person contract HIV just from contact with a syphilitic ulcer?

Thanks again.
« Last Edit: December 07, 2010, 03:56:17 pm by indigo84 »

Offline jkinatl2

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Re: Can HIV be transmitted through contact with syphilis?
« Reply #3 on: December 07, 2010, 03:59:40 pm »

If a person has an open chancre, it is essentially an open wound - moreover, an open would into which white blood cells are pouring, to contain the infection and to heal the wound.

If that chancre comes into contact with HIV infected blood or semen, it is possible for HIV to find precisely the right CD4 cells they require to facilitate infection.

IF you had an open chancre at the time you were briefly barebacked, and IF infected fluids came into contact with that chancre, then there is a possibility of infection. It may be remote, but it is real. And by "infected fluids" I also refer to pre-ejaculate, which appears in varying degrees in different guys, under different circumstances.

Syphilis shares a three-month testing window for HIV. As you have already had a month between yourself and the incident, you only need to wait two more months for a definitive test. I strongly suspect that you will test negative, as chancres do not usually last for four weeks.



"Many people, especially in the gay community, turn to oral sex as a safer alternative in the age of AIDS. And with HIV rates rising, people need to remember that oral sex is safer sex. It's a reasonable alternative."

-Kimberly Page-Shafer, PhD, MPH

Welcome Thread

Offline indigo84

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Re: Can HIV be transmitted through contact with syphilis?
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2010, 04:06:09 pm »
Thanks, jkinatl.

Just to clarify, I did not have an open chancre at the time. I suspect the top had the open chancre.
I, as far as I know, had a relatively injury-free anus, other than the usual trauma accompanying anal sex.

I'm hoping a liberal interpretation of your answer means that, even though I was infected with syph, my odds of contracting hiv through contact with his syphilitic sore are low.

Thank you very much for all the info.

Offline jkinatl2

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Re: Can HIV be transmitted through contact with syphilis?
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2010, 04:19:25 pm »
Thanks, jkinatl.

Just to clarify, I did not have an open chancre at the time. I suspect the top had the open chancre.
I, as far as I know, had a relatively injury-free anus, other than the usual trauma accompanying anal sex.

I'm hoping a liberal interpretation of your answer means that, even though I was infected with syph, my odds of contracting hiv through contact with his syphilitic sore are low.

Thank you very much for all the info.

Your interpretation is correct. You were, of course, at risk for syphilis. And had your HIV situations been reversed, he would have been at greater risk from you. But no, it does not work that way the other way around.

"Many people, especially in the gay community, turn to oral sex as a safer alternative in the age of AIDS. And with HIV rates rising, people need to remember that oral sex is safer sex. It's a reasonable alternative."

-Kimberly Page-Shafer, PhD, MPH

Welcome Thread

Offline Andy Velez

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Re: Can HIV be transmitted through contact with syphilis?
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2010, 05:53:53 pm »
As JK has indicated, having contracted syphillis does not equate to also having become HIV infected. Other STDs are much easier to acquire than HIV.

Given what you have described of the incident including the brevity of the single incident and it having been without ejacuatlion, I'd say the odds are in your favor that you'll come out of this ok.

We do advise anyone who is sexually active to regularly have a full STD panel done because other STDs are much more easily acquired than HIV.

Good luck with your test and keep us posted.
Andy Velez

 


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