HIV Handshake with small cut

i was at the barbershop yesterday with my father. there was a gay barber guy who i knew from years past that was cutting dads hair. after he was finished with the haircut, the barber came over to me and shook my hand. i didnt think anything about it at first. but then i noticed i have a very small cut on my finger from a couple of days before. there was no bleeding and i didnt notice any blood on the gay barber mans hand that I shook. I am terrified at this. the only thing i can find online is on the cdc website it mentions casual contact/ handshaking not a risk. but it doesnt mention handshakes with non bleeding cut. one side of my thoughts wants to believe that handshaking with small cuts on fingers and hands take place everyday, so it is not even significant. but my scary thoughts say "what if?" maybe someone here can tell me the facts about this. i want to move on and forget it all, but i am just not sure what to do. i do not want to have to test for this. nor do i want this hanging over my head. can someone tell me if this is even a risk even if there "had" been blood present. I never saw any blood present at all..thanks

[Teak]

HIV is transmitted by,
Unprotected anal and vaginal sex
Sharing works with other IV drug abusers
Mother to Child.

[robertjohns]

ok. so even if there had been some small chance that he also had a wound or cut or some other kind of bodily fluid on his hand, are you telling me that there was not any kind of risk for HIV? I did not see anything on his hands at all, nor did i feel anything. my dad wasnt worried in the least about anything like this and he had just cut his hair and shaved his neck with a bladed razor i think. i guess i am just worried about some his bodily fluid getting into my tiny tiny cut. thank you so much. again, i did not see or feel anything on his hand. i just dont understand how this is not a risk and i have read over on the doctors forums about masturbation with small cuts not even being a risk, thats what the doctor said over there. the man at thebody.com also says that a handshake with small cuts are no risk as well. thanks again for your help, any other tips would be greatly appreciated.

[NickOne7]

ok. so even if there had been some small chance that he also had a wound or cut or some other kind of bodily fluid on his hand, are you telling me that there was not any kind of risk for HIV? YES

[LIZZIE LOU]

your cut from 2 days before was NOT an open cut !  cuts start healing from the inside out.

you had NO risk

[todd30]

I think you may have contracted HOMOPHOBIA some place!! This is much worse then HIV. It's an isolating disease that renders it's victim pathetic and useless. Really dude its 2011. By far most people who are gay do not have hiv.  And if hiv were contracted by hand shaking  when one pesron has an old cut then almost everyone would have it. If this has really caused you stress dont shake anyones hand ever.

[robertjohns]

this makes sense now. NO risk because the cut was not bleeding. so, therefore there was no portal for anything to enter. it had healed up. that is common sense. i had also seen on thebody.com website where Dr. Franscino had told someone else who had the same concerns as mine that even with cuts, there was no risk for HIV transmission via a handshake.. Also, Dr. Hook pretty much said the same thing. everyone has said the same thing. haaa! thanks

[robertjohns]

yes, you are correct. i am a probably a homophobe. common sense tells me that everyone has cuts on their fingers and hands from time to time. and if hiv was that easy to catch, then hiv would be infecting everyone all the time. and you are correct.. if this had been a straight person i had shook hands with, i wouldn't have given it another thought. thanks for your help.

[robertjohns]

hey everyone. i just wanted to thank everyone for your help earlier in the week. I have been doing pretty good.. I had still been worrying some about this situation. But today, I have made a huge discovery.. I dont even think my tiny cut place ever made any contact with this gentleman when I shook his hand. The cut was on the upper part of my index finger. I was in the car with my dad today and we were talking about things.. and he said here, shake my hand.. So, I shook dads hand. and guess what? the top portion of my index finger never made ANY contact with his hand.. same way with dads index finger.. it made NO contact with my hand either. So........ I am feeling so much better now... At any rate... even if there had been any kind of contact of my finger to his hand or his fingers, it would have been sooooo very brief.. and that doesnt worry me at all... so.. with me not noticing any kind of fluids on his hands and me not knowing his HIV status and me not really knowing whether my tiny cut place touched his hands or fingers..I really dont know too much to say that I should be worried about. I will have to just assume that the small cut place never made any contact with him. And with Teak, Lizzie Lou and Dr. Hook all saying NO RISK!, then I feel it is time to leave this in the past and forget about it. I have sat around and thought about things and when you look at it, there are many times a day that handshaking goes on.. in darkly lit nightclubs, uhhhh, lets see.... blue collar workers with cuts and nicks on their hands.. and I know I have shook hands with people before with cuts on my hands and never even given it another thought. and these other people dont even think about it either.. soooo Dr. Hook, Teak and Lizzie Lou are correct. If HIV were that easy to catch by a handshake, we would all have been in a massive epidemic right now with everyone wearing gloves and living in bubbles. Anyway, I will close for now.. I have given this too much worry and the truth and cure for OCD is "if you can remove the fear, the intrusive thoughts stop." I hope all of this makes sense, it does to me right now. and I am surely gonna try to move on. I will give it my best shot. Thanks again!

[NickOne7]

You NEVER had a risk

Kindly Move Along...