Dear All,

Thank you for taking the time to read my question. A few days ago I made the terrible drunk mistake of having unprotected vaginal sex with a prostitute I met at a club in Bangkok.

Fortunately, I was able to contact her and she agreed to take a blood test. The problem is that instead of going to a proper hospital, we went to a small clinic on Sukhumvit (Near On Nut, Sukhumvit soi 77, in front of big C in case anyone knows the place). The test was conducted in probably not more than 10 minutes between the moment she had her blood drawn to the result in the envellope.

It has been my experience in the past that an HIV test in Thailand would take at least 45 minutes. So I looked on internet and read about rapid HIV tests which can be done in only a few minutes. However, the procedure for these rapid tests seems to just take some blood from the fingertip. But in her case, the blood was taken from the vein in the crook of the arm in a vial (like a proper hiv test). I am concerned that this was a legit test and wondering if they actually checked something.

Please let me know if this sounds like a legitimate way to conduct HIV testing or if I should be worried? Is it possible test and get results HIV so quickly?

The only way to be sure is getting a hiv test yourself. 6 weeks after exposure and confirm with a second test 3 months after exposure.

Orchis is correct as even if her tests was negative she could still be in the early stages of HIV infection. the test checks for antibodies which take time to form.

The rapid HIV tests -- which is what every[place does first -- does indeed take only minutes. However it has a fairly high rate of false piositives, and so all those who test positive then have to have a further test done (on the same blood sample) which takes longer. Most places just routinely have patients come back later for the results 9i,.e after enough time has passed to do the ELISA test if the initial rapid test was positive) rather than give some patients the immediate negative result and tell the others that a second test was needed, because then that second group of patients freaks out, usually needlessly.

So it is possible that the place you went to did a rapid HIV test. That the blood was from a vein and not a pinprick is of no significance. But of course it ia also possible that the clinic didn't really do the test at all if it is a small and shady operation.