Question

Can diarrhoea be a symptom of HIV-infection?

11 January 2008. Related: All topics, HIV transmission.

I am 17 years old, I had sex with a woman who I paid to have sex with me using a condom, but after 2 weeks I developed diarrhoea. Only then, after 2 weeks, I developed nausea and fatigue and also next to it, after 1 week I developed a pain in the limbs.

Can HIV have like these symptoms that one comes after the other?

Answer

Answer: Simon Collins

There are no ‘definitive’ or ‘diagnostic’ symptoms of HIV-infection, although a heavy ‘flu-like illness a few weeks after exposure to HIV is a commonon indication of recent infection. Diarrhoea is not one of these symptoms.

The chances of being infected in your case are very close to zero, as you have used a condom. Then, not every sex-worker is by default HIV-positive. Still, it is advisable for everybody who has active sexual life to get tested regularly-say every 6 months.