Contact with HIV infected blood

[Lacy206]

A family member of mine is hiv positive, and we share the same bathroom. When going to the bathroom, I wiped myself with tissue with possible dried blood. The substance was a small portion, but nevertheless should I be concerned?

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Yes.  Still no risk.  Let's not degenerate into "what ifs", it is not productive.  EWH

[Edward W Hook, MD]

We get many of questions of this nature.  The risk is very low.  For starters, from your question, you do not know if what you contacted was blood or not and, perhaps equally important, you do not know that it was your infected family member's blood.  More importantly, whatever you touched was dried.  HIV survives poorly outside of the body and dies quickly when exposed to air.  So, even if the material you contacted was blood, if it was dry it was certainly non-infectious.  Finally, intact skin is an important barrier to infections of many sorts, including HIV.  

Putting all of these facts together, it is safe to say that you need not worry about wiping yourself with tissue contaminated with what might have been dried, HIV containing blood.  In this situation there is no medical reason to worry or to get tested


Hope this helps.  EWH

[Lacy206]

Sorry for being paranoid, I' am still getting used to the idea of a hiv infected family member. I' am not fully educated on hiv transmission and find myself becoming tense over every possibility of infection. I hope to learn more. Nevertheless, thank you for you response.

[Lacy206]

but I had a rash or burn in my genital area from excessive washing. Is skin still consider intact?