HIV/STD-Intl

[hyt3]

I asked thi would like to ask a question about hiv and std's. I recently went and had blood drawn at a labcorp and I noticed that the nurse or phlebotomist had a puncture/hole in her glove which she did not replace from the previous patient/patients. Now she had some red stain on her glove which could have been blood from the previous patient or it could have been blood from herself as she may have had a cut where blood had seeped thru her hole in the glove. so my questions are 1) if the phlebotomist did have a cut where blood seeped thru the puncture hole in the glove and she was in fact HIV positive or had some other std could she have infected me if she touched the needle and accidently put on the needle before going into my arm. Im worried about the thought of her contaminating the needle before injecting it in my arm; and 2) if the previous patient had HIV and got blood on the phlebotomists gloves and then touched the needle thereby contaminating the needle before injecting in my arm could I get HIV or any other STD? 3) could the phlebotomist have infected me by touching my puncture wound with infected blood on her gloves from herself or the previous patient..Im sorry for the length and detail of the questions but im freaked out bc the nurse/phlebotomist never changed gloves from the previous patient and seeing red stain scared me. thank you.  

[hyt3]

Sorry Doctor-
I'm not sure if my 2nd post went thru to you so I apologize if you receive this twice. Your reply would be greatly appreciated. ( see question below)
Thank you doctor for your answer. One last question for you as I recently got an answer from another guest (not a doctor I think) on the std forum that said "it also depends on the hepatitis type" in referring to a question i asked anyone to answer for advice about the possibility of acquiring hepatitis thru the scenarios I presented. I just want to confirm w you that any type of hepatitis is not able to be transmitted this way. Ive also read that hepatitis is more easily acquired than HIV and just wanna be thorough and make sure u said it is not transmitted this way for all blood borne diseases including hepatitis? Thnk u and I knowing probably being to worked up bout this but I'm about to get engaged and just wanna make sure all is well and right. Thank u and I look forward to ur reply.

[hyt3]

Thank you doctor for your answer. One last question for you as I recently got an answer from another guest (not a doctor I think) on the std forum that said "it also depends on the hepatitis type" in referring to a question i asked anyone to answer for advice about the possibility of acquiring hepatitis thru the scenarios I presented. I just want to confirm w you that any type of hepatitis is not able to be transmitted this way. Ive also read that hepatitis is more easily acquired than HIV and just wanna be thorough and make sure u said it is not transmitted this way for all blood borne diseases including hepatitis? Thnk u and I knowing probably being to worked up bout this but I'm about to get engaged and just wanna make sure all is well and right. Thank u and I look forward to ur reply.

[Dr. Jose Gonzalez-Garcia, MD, MRCGP, PhD]

Hello,
I think that you are totally overreacting.  None of these situations would have put you at risk of HIV infection, or any other infection.  In fact most of it does not seem very plausible.  In any case, the use of gloves is for the protection of the person withdrawing the blood, and not for the patient.  After all they are not sterile gloves.
Best wishes,
Dr José