Clarification re cuts please

Hi and thanks for your time. I am hoping someone like Teak or Lizze Lou could answer my queries please. Any other advice welcome too.

Information on cuts and HIV risk is very confusing so I'm seeking clarification please. How deep to cuts have to be, to be at risk of contracting HIV? Do cuts have to be huge wounds or can they be quite smaller?

My concern is because I went shopping the other day and noticed that my finger had been stinging slightly on and off, but when I looked at it I didn't really notice anything so I ignored it for most of the day, until a little later when I inspected it more closely and saw that I actually had a pretty deep cut in my skin from the cuticle and down the skin under my middle fingernail. It bled when I pulled the skin to the side slightly. I think the cut might've happened that morning (a couple of hours before I went shopping) when I may've bitten off a thick strip of loose skin and ripped the surrounding skin. I know this makes the cut sound petty, but it looked pretty deep, like it went through a few skin layers. I'm worried because I'd used that hand all day when handing over money etc a number of times while shopping and that part of my finger could very well have come into contact with a sales assistant's hand.

If a sales asst. had a fresh bleeding cut and it came into contact with mine, what are my chances of catching HIV (if they had it)? Would something be able to get into my bloodstream that way? Or would a lot of pressure have to have been applied between me and the other person's hand (ie not normal contact)? Someone told me that your skin builds a self-protective barrier against outside infections after two hours, but would this have been disturbed if I had rubbed the skin a bit before my contact with another person?

I know my risk here is very low, but is it non-existent?

Thanks in anticipation of your advice. I'd like to get some education here so I know if I have anything to be concerned about (now, or if I have cuts in future, which I seem to get often).

Thanks a lot.

[LIZZIE LOU]

your thoughts are a little irrational.  most ppl dont go around thinking about cuts on their fingers and the sales clerk having a cut on their finger...and contracting hiv from a shopping trip.  i hope that you are receiving help if these kind of thoughts are controlling your life.

as for your risk?   it is NON EXISTANT

FROM DR. HANSFIELD:

"HIV isn't so easily transmitted.  Minor cuts and trivial blood exposures simply don't create a measurable risk.  Like many persons, you seem to think that "just one virus" is enough to transmit the infection.  That is not the case.  Substantial amounts of infected blood or secretions have to be introduced into the body in a way that exposes certain cells to the virus.  If HIV could be transmitted in the ways you are worrying about, AIDS would be 100 times more common than it is and would not be classified as an STD."

[Fi52]

Thanks a lot Lizzie Lou. I will try to chill out more in future.