Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Mark H. Katz, M.D.
Regional HIV/AIDS Physician Coordinator
Kaiser Permanente of Southern California
I will answer each of your questions in turn:
Question #1 - If a man is infected by another through anal penetration, how soon could the infection show up in a blood test?
Answer: The blood test would turn positive anytime from around 2 weeks to 2-3 months. This is vague, but it is because of the tremendous variation from individual to individual.
Question #2 - what is the relative risk from unprotected anal sex versus unprotected oral sex?
Answer: Please see the accompanying table, and you can see it is many times higher from anal or vaginal sex compared to oral sex.
Question #3 - If an HIV + person has an undetectable viral load, how does that effect his risk of infecting a partner. Is it lower?
Answer: The risk of infecting someone else is indeed much lower for a lower viral load, but it is a difficult number to specifically, exactly quantify. But the principle is exactly as you have stated.
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