Bloody Shower Spray

On Wednesday morning, I went to take a shower at my gym. I noticed an Asian male, around 40 who looked healthy, who was shaving his head with shaving cream and a razor in the common sink area.

I chose a shower stall with a divider. The stall divider provides good coverage but it is open at the top and at the bottom. The stalls are packed a bit close. Sometimes, shower neighbors spray each other with their shower water when the water deflects off their bodies.

While showering, I got sprayed by shower water by the shower occupant next to me.  Unfortunately, it was the guy who was shaving his head who shower sprayed me. I peeked above the divider which confirmed my suspicions.

My concern is since the guy was shaving, his shower spray was tinged with his blood and I'm at risk for HIV or HCV or other blood illnesses. I got sprayed a fair amount on my right shoulder. I did not feel a heavy spray on my face or my eyes but it's hard to tell as my shower was going as well. I am concerned that I may have been sprayed in my eyes, nose, or mouth. I got sprayed for a few minutes, but I don't have an accurate time frame. I also cowered a bit to avoid the spray and tried to protect my face.

I don't think I had many active cuts. I was not profusely bleeding anywhere. However, I do have acne and I have some open acne lesions over my face and body. I'm also quite concerned that I got some blood tinged water in my eyes, nose or mouth.

I searched the forum and I feel okay, but there were two post that concerned me a bit, one with a tattooist that got fluid in his eyes: http://www.medhelp.org/posts/HIV-Prevention/HIV-survival-in-tattoo-ink/show/971089 and another man who got semen in his eye http://www.medhelp.org/posts/HIV-Prevention/semen-in-eye/show/437767

Am I at risk for HIV? Do I need PEP? Should I tell my long term girlfriend about this instance and avoid sex with her?

How about the worse case scenario, if I did get blood tinged water into my eye or open wound? Any risk?

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Welcome to the forum.

There is not the slightest risk of HIV from these events.  If HIV could be transmitted by the miniscule amounts of blood that could possibly be sprayed up by the shower, it would not be classified as an STD and HIV/AIDS would be hundreds of times more common than it is.  Think of this statistic:  no household members of HIV infected persons, sharing bathrooms, showers, kitchens, and eating utensils with the infected persons over several years, have ever been known to catch HIV (unless, of course, they were sex or needle-sharing partners as well as housemates).

The two threads for which you provide the links are irrelevant to this kind of exposure, and in any case they support the very low to zero risk in the scenario you describe.  For sure you do not need HIV testing or PEP in this circumstance.

Regards--  HHH, MD

[ShowerSpray]

My concern is definitely reduced, I just have a few more questions if you would be so kind.

So, even if shower sprayer cut himself while shaving his head, maybe even severely cut himself, the amount of blood spraying back off his head is too little to worry about? It appears I need to rely on the physics of the situation.

In another situation, a older man was filling up his water bottle with the shower nozzle, and water sprayed everywhere, even if he had bloody gums, is the risk negligible?

Is it true that fresh water like shower water kills HIV instantly?

Should I only be concerned if a fresh, large and obvious amount of blood or semen hits an open wound or my eye? I am heterosexual, so I'm not sure how that semen issue would arise.

Those two links I provided had me a bit concerned because testing was recommended in both instances. In the case of the man who got semen in his eye, PEP was recommended and it appeared he had a 1 in 100 chance of being infected. Though I've seen other threads where the same Doctor said semen in the eye carried no risk. It created a bit of confusion.

Thanks

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

I don't know whether HIV is killed by fresh water; probably it is.  But that misses the point.  Whatever the biological reason, HIV is not transmitted by this sort of thing.  Period.  As for shower water, it would have to have enough blood that it would be obviously, well, bloody!

If there were lots of people diagnosed with HIV who had not had traditional exposures (sexual, needle sharing etc) exposures -- i.e. if HIV/AIDS behaved like influenza, tuberculosis, etc, then one would have to consider the possibility of transmission by casual personal contact or environmental contamination. But that doesn't happen; everybody with HIV has had a documented sexual or similar exposure, except a few who lied or didn't know their partners were at risk. Your concerns about these sorts of events simply have no basis in scientific fact or theory.

Also, individual replies on the forum often are tailored specifically to the detailed question, and often cannot and should not be extrapolated to outwardly similar situations.  One of the threads you cite concerned known-infected secretions that definitely got into someone's eye.  That circumstance is irrelevant to the shower/bathroom scenarios you describe.

That's all I'll have to say on this thread.

[ShowerSpray]

Thank you for your prompt and logical response. It has done much to alleviate my anxiety. Have a great Christmas and holidays.