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Pregnant Mom, possible HIV risk? Please Help
Hi Dr,
My situation is as follows. I went to a local walk in clinic as my family Dr is on holidays. It was in a not so great part of town where lots of drug addicts etc frequent that clinc. Anyways when the Dr came into the room he already had gloves on I don't know if they were from the last patient he saw I assume so because why would he put on gloves just to come into the room to talk to a patient without knowing what the patient required.. He led me into the exam room with the same gloves on left the room to let me change and got supplies and whatever touching door handles etc, came back into the room gloves still on and performed the vaginal exam on me with the same gloves. My concern is that i don't think the dr was very diligent about changing his gloves that day and I had some open areas on my vagina due to irritation from a possible infection. Not to mention he took the swabs and two days later I got a phone call saying they were not even labelled what they were for so the lab couldn't process them, which makes me even less trustworthy of hos practicing tecniques. My concern is not that I got hiv from him touching door handles and then touching me I know that is not possible, my concern is that he did not change his gloves after the previous patient. My questions for you are as follows:
1 )Do you think that I require HIV Testing?
2) If he did have bodily fluid from someone else on his gloves and did a vaginal exam on me( he did not put any finger into my vagina just a speculum and took swabs), what would be my risk of aquiring hiv or some other infection?
3) What percent reliability would a 4 week HIV test done here in canada have ?
4) Do you think I should have gone to the hospital and gotten PEP?
and lastly
5) Would being pregnant affect my seroconversion time?
I would really appreciate your opinion as I don't know much on the topic and I am very concerend because I'm pregnant. Thank you so much and I await your response.
Sincerely ,
Worried Mom
My situation is as follows. I went to a local walk in clinic as my family Dr is on holidays. It was in a not so great part of town where lots of drug addicts etc frequent that clinc. Anyways when the Dr came into the room he already had gloves on I don't know if they were from the last patient he saw I assume so because why would he put on gloves just to come into the room to talk to a patient without knowing what the patient required.. He led me into the exam room with the same gloves on left the room to let me change and got supplies and whatever touching door handles etc, came back into the room gloves still on and performed the vaginal exam on me with the same gloves. My concern is that i don't think the dr was very diligent about changing his gloves that day and I had some open areas on my vagina due to irritation from a possible infection. Not to mention he took the swabs and two days later I got a phone call saying they were not even labelled what they were for so the lab couldn't process them, which makes me even less trustworthy of hos practicing tecniques. My concern is not that I got hiv from him touching door handles and then touching me I know that is not possible, my concern is that he did not change his gloves after the previous patient. My questions for you are as follows:
1 )Do you think that I require HIV Testing?
2) If he did have bodily fluid from someone else on his gloves and did a vaginal exam on me( he did not put any finger into my vagina just a speculum and took swabs), what would be my risk of aquiring hiv or some other infection?
3) What percent reliability would a 4 week HIV test done here in canada have ?
4) Do you think I should have gone to the hospital and gotten PEP?
and lastly
5) Would being pregnant affect my seroconversion time?
I would really appreciate your opinion as I don't know much on the topic and I am very concerend because I'm pregnant. Thank you so much and I await your response.
Sincerely ,
Worried Mom
I think I had an exposure to HIV also. I am 8 months pregnant and have tested at 4, 6, 8.5 weeks on the rapid test- all negative. I am worrying that since your immune system is lowered during pregnancy, it might cause delay in HIV seroconversion?
Okay thankyou for your quick response I was just a little concerned because ive never seen a doctor come into the room with gloves already on before knowing why I was there and the combination of him not even doing the tests properly made me question his credibility usually the dr will glove up in from of you before examining you
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Welcome to the forum.
Your fears of catching HIV through a medical examination are unfounded. It never happens, and in any case it sounds like your doctor used appropriate gloving and other means to prevent transmission of any infection. Of course he did not use the same gloves on different patients. Why would he do that?
1,4) For sure there is no need for HIV testing on account of the examination you had, and certainly no need for PEP. You wouldn't be able to find a health professional willing to prescribe PEP anyway.
2) This is an unrealistic scenario, and probably would not result in HIV transmission even if the gloves were contaminated with another person's HIV-infected body fluids.
3) An HIV antibody test is around 95% reliable at 4 weeks. A combo test, for both antibody and p24 antigen, is 100% reliable at that time.
5) No medical conditions affect seroconversion time, and pregnancy certainly doesn't do so.
Please try to relax. You are barking up the wrong tree. Nobody in the world ever caught HIV from the sort of events you have described and you're not going to be the first.
Regards-- HHH, MD
Your fears of catching HIV through a medical examination are unfounded. It never happens, and in any case it sounds like your doctor used appropriate gloving and other means to prevent transmission of any infection. Of course he did not use the same gloves on different patients. Why would he do that?
1,4) For sure there is no need for HIV testing on account of the examination you had, and certainly no need for PEP. You wouldn't be able to find a health professional willing to prescribe PEP anyway.
2) This is an unrealistic scenario, and probably would not result in HIV transmission even if the gloves were contaminated with another person's HIV-infected body fluids.
3) An HIV antibody test is around 95% reliable at 4 weeks. A combo test, for both antibody and p24 antigen, is 100% reliable at that time.
5) No medical conditions affect seroconversion time, and pregnancy certainly doesn't do so.
Please try to relax. You are barking up the wrong tree. Nobody in the world ever caught HIV from the sort of events you have described and you're not going to be the first.
Regards-- HHH, MD
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