HIV viability in small biopsy specimen?

[Paulllll]

Dear doctors:
  I am a technician in an anatomical pathology lab. Some  biopsy specimen are sent to our lab quite quickly. That caused us worried about potential infection risk. We want to know:
1. How long could the virus survive in a 3 mm gastric biopsy specimen after being  taken out from body?
2. Would its infectivity remained after leaving body for 30~ 50 minutes?

Thanks you very much.
    
  

[Vance2335]

Dr's do not post here

[Paulllll]

Thank you, doctor.

[Vance2335]

No risk as I have said.

[Paulllll]

Occasionally, some of the fluid would splash and contact our face when we take out and handle the specimen from the bottle by forceps. Hence, we are afraid that some of the body fluid content such as blood ( mixed in formalin) would also contact our eyes (without being noticed). So we went here to ask for the risk.

Your answer helps us a lot.

Thank you very very much.

[Paulllll]

We only knew that neutral buffered formalin would kill cell-free virus in ten minutes. But we do not know its effect on small biopsy specimen.  

[Paulllll]

Actually, we have asked. Our department supervisor said that the virus in the small specimen would die within 15 minutes after leaving living human body. Formalin fixation would also kill the virus. However, we cannot find related data about viral infectivity in this kind of specimen.

[Vance2335]

We don't play the "what if" game. Go to your supervisor if you have concerns of your health and safety while at work.

[Paulllll]

And what if our eyes were splashed by the formalin  which contained the small biopsy specimen? We are afraid that some of the body fluid content such as blood ( mixed in formalin) would also contact our eyes.

Thank you.

[Vance2335]

You had no HIV risk

[Paulllll]

Also, is one hour fixation adequate for 10% neutral buffered formalin  to permeate the specimen and kill the virus in room temperature?