Visiting Dubai and worried about an HIV exposure? What to do now

Do not wait until you get home

Many visitors who have a condom failure or unprotected sex abroad plan to deal with it when they get home. The problem is the clock. PEP has to start within 72 hours of the exposure, and it works best when it starts within hours. If your flight is two days away, waiting to see your own doctor may mean missing the window entirely.

Being in an unfamiliar city also makes it harder to know where to go. This guide is for that situation.

Step 1: speak to a physician

Call or message a licensed provider as soon as possible. A physician will ask what happened, when, what you know about the other person, and about your health. They will tell you honestly whether PEP is recommended. Many exposures carry a low risk, and the physician can put yours in context.

Have ready:

• your passport (licensed providers in Dubai must verify identity)
• a list of any medicines you take
• your flight date and time

Step 2: get seen at your hotel, or go to hospital

You have two practical options:

• A home-healthcare visit to your hotel. A DHA-licensed service can send a physician to your room. There is no waiting room, and it works at night. This is how Hollis works: a physician calls back within 15 minutes and is usually with you within about 2 hours.
• A hospital emergency department. Large hospitals run 24-hour emergency departments. It is worth calling ahead to check that they can start PEP tonight.

Hotel staff do not need to know why a doctor is visiting. At Hollis, nothing we carry says why we are there, and the invoice reads "Hollis Private Health, consultation".

Step 3: start PEP and take the full course

If PEP is recommended, the physician will take baseline blood tests and give you the first dose. PEP is a combination of HIV medicines taken every day for 28 days.

Ask for the full 28-day supply before you leave the UAE, so that you do not have to find the same medicines at home in a hurry.

Flying home in the middle of PEP

• Keep your medicines in their original packaging, in your hand luggage, with the prescription or a letter from the prescribing physician.
• Take your doses at the same time each day. If you cross time zones, ask your physician how to shift the timing safely.
• Keep a copy of your baseline test results so your doctor at home can see them.

Step 4: follow-up tests at home

PEP is not finished when the tablets run out. You will need HIV tests at about 4 to 6 weeks and again at 12 weeks after the exposure, and your physician may suggest testing for other STIs such as chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis. Take your Dubai results to your own doctor or a sexual health clinic at home. At Hollis, your physician can stay in touch after you fly home and share your results with your own doctor.

If the exposure was more than 72 hours ago

PEP is no longer recommended, but you should still be tested at the right times. See HIV and STD window periods. If you are still in Dubai, you can have a full STD screen at your hotel.

If you were assaulted

If you are in danger, call 999. You deserve care for your physical and emotional health as well as PEP. A physician can assess you for PEP, emergency contraception and other infections, and can arrange referral to a hospital for a forensic examination. Whether to make a police report is usually your decision, but if you have injuries the physician may have a legal duty to notify the authorities, and they will explain this to you first.

Travelling to the UAE on PrEP

If you already take PrEP and are travelling to the UAE, carry your medicine in its original packaging with your prescription. The UAE requires prior approval only for certain controlled medicines, but rules can change, so check the current requirements with the UAE embassy or the Emirates Drug Establishment (EDE), which now handles medicine regulation, before you travel.