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Exposure During Testing
Please help, doctor. I went to a public STD clinic in New York City to get tested for HIV and the counselor who performed the rapid test did not wear gloves. Thankfully she couldn't to find a big enough vein in my arm so rather than draw blood first (which seems to be their standard procedure in case of a positive result) she went ahead and pricked my finger. I was so nervous about getting tested that I neglected to ask her to put any gloves on. Am I at any risk for HIV? It was early in the morning and she had tested three people before me. I'm not sure if she washed her hands or not but a good 5 to 10 minutes had passed since the last person she tested. To the best of my knowledge she didn't touch my the wound on my finger directly. She did however wipe it with an antiseptic wipe after pricking it, squeezed my finger to get the blood sample, and placed a cotton pad on the wound before applying a bandage. I was so relieved to have tested negative but now that I realize that the counselor didn't wear gloves, I've become a nervous wreck yet again. I also had a small breakout of eczema on one of my knuckles and I'm pretty sure she touched my hand as well. Please, doctor, given the counselor's failure to take the proper precautions, is there any chance whatsoever I could have been infected from getting tested? Please help!
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
No, virus would not be viable. No futher unrealistic, anxiety driven questions please. You are not at risk. EWH
Dr. Can you please comment on the likelihood of any possible miscrscopic amounts of blood remaining infectious on the counselor's hands? Does the outside atmosphere inactivate the virus? Please respond, Dr. This will be the last question.
I apologize for being so overly concerned Dr. It's just that you said that counselors and nurses wear gloves to protect themselves and not the patient and that got me thinking that the situation I encountered could very well have put me at risk since my safety was not at all considered. Just to clarify, presuming all those things occurred, would microscopic amounts of blood (non visible) remain infectious outside the body for 5 or more minutes? Last question, Dr, I promise.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
I repeat, NO RISK. The situations describe by the case reports you have encountered are in no way similar to yours.
Think of what would need to happen - the person who say you would have had to have not used gloves on a prior patient, the person whose blood was taken would need to be infected, the blood would need to remain infectious on the counselor's skin, the counselor would need to have not successfully washed her hands, her hands would have had to have successfully transferred that blood to you, the infected blood would have had to enter you, and once there to cause infection. The odds of you being hit by lightening while you are reading this are higher than the odds of you getting HIV from the situation you described. No Risk. Forget about this and move on. No further questions please. EWH
Think of what would need to happen - the person who say you would have had to have not used gloves on a prior patient, the person whose blood was taken would need to be infected, the blood would need to remain infectious on the counselor's skin, the counselor would need to have not successfully washed her hands, her hands would have had to have successfully transferred that blood to you, the infected blood would have had to enter you, and once there to cause infection. The odds of you being hit by lightening while you are reading this are higher than the odds of you getting HIV from the situation you described. No Risk. Forget about this and move on. No further questions please. EWH
You need to move on like the doctor said, you have no risk of exposure. The person tested you has no blood on his or her hands and blood or body fluids like semen or vaginal fluid to infect HIV. Besides your wound in your hand is covered with clean cotton right away and the wound in your hand is very tiny and healed in seconds. Again move on and forget about it. You will not get HIV from this episode
Please Dr. I read somewhere on the internet (esp. the CDC website) that there have been cases of people with broken skin (i.e. eczema) getting infected with HIV through nonsexual contact. Is there really no way that the counselor could have infected me? Do you think 5 to 10 minutes was enough to inactivate the virus (assuming there still was some on her hand?).
Thanks for your prompt reply, Dr. But is there a chance that microscopic amounts of blood from any of the previous patients could still be on the counselor's hands when she performed the rapid test on me? And could amounts that small be enough to infect me? While I am worried about any contact she had with my pricked finger wound, I'm also concerned that she came in contact with my eczema outbreak on my knuckle. Eczema is broken skin and could the virus have gotten in that way? I thought I would be rid of my worries but this testing experience may have made them worse.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
You are at no risk. The reasons that counselors and others performing testing wear gloves is to protect themselves from you, not to protect you from them. HIV has never been passed by hand to hand contact and you are not going to be the first. Forget about this. It is no risk for you. You do not need further testing becasue of this expsoure. EWH
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