HIV Transmission

[mickykat]

is it possible to be infected with HIV through a local anthestic?

In other words, I recently had a local anthestic into my skull behind my ear in order to remove a mole. I am worried that the dermatoligist who performed the procedure was HIV infected and delibertetly infected me through this process.

Sounds paranoid I know, however a clinic here in Melbourne recently charged a doctor for delibetertly infecting 30 women with Hep C which is currently going through the courts and has made people,including me a little paranoid in general.

If it is not possible to be infected in this way - could you briefly explain why not?

thank you

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Welcome to the forum.

Is it possible to infect someone with HIV by intentionally injecting him or her with HIV infected blood or body fluids?  Yes, of course.  It probably happened once.  20+ year ago, early in the AIDS era, a young woman who was the patient of an HIV infected dentist became infected and soon died.  Most experts suspected the dentist intentionally injected her with his own blood, but he soon died of AIDS and the case was never pursued legally.

However, that's the world's only known case.  The apparent presence of one wacko health care provider in Melbourne (or anywhere else) obviously doesn't imply there are others in the same town who would do something similar.

So of course this is possible.  But if you're going to worry about it, you should also be taking precautions against lightning strikes and being struck by a meteorite.  The odds of these are probably higher than the chance your dermatologist intentionally injected you with HIV.

HHH, MD

[mickykat]

looking back , I should have been more specific,

it is possible that HIV infected blood mixed into a needle filled with anthestic still be effectively transmitable into the body this way?



it was more a techinical question.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Yes, it would be possible to catch HIV if your doctor used a needle that had recently been used on an HIV infected person.  But the essence of your question seemed to be whether the doctor might have done this intentionally.  Without that intention, such transmission is impossible, because no right-thinking health professional re-uses needles and syringes.  And if he made a mistake and somehow used a contaminated needle to draw up the anesthetic, there would be no risk.  All anesthetics and other injectable medications have preservatives that would kill HIV and other viruses or bacteria.

That will be all for this thread.  You're not going to be able to think up any scenarios that would change my opinion or advice, i.e. that there is no HIV risk here and you should stop worrying about it.