Hiv Scare and Confusion in DR's Office

Hello Drs,

I have a question i hope you can help me with.  I was in my podiatrist office yesterday and he was cutting of a wart that i have on my toe. Now this is all fine but what scared me is that he pulled out one scalpel from his toolbox that was sitting in his office and wiped the blade off with a regular gauze.  He then said this is to big so he grab another different scalpel out of his box and replaced that blade.  My issue now is he is using the same gauze that he wiped the first scalpel off with that he did not change and is wiping the new instrument off with that as well.

My first question is if there was HIV+ blood on the first scalpel could the gauze have passed it over to the new scalpel that had been changed when he was wiping it down?

My second and last question is just say he accidently used the first scalpel by mixing the two up because they were right next to each other could that transmit hiv? Also i had been sitting in his room for a few minutes with the tool kit in there so i know at least it was not bloody for a few minutes before use on me. Lastly i did bleed but he was using more of a scraping motion and not jabbing this deep into my toe.

Thanks you so much for your help and hopefully i can stop worrying so much.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to the Forum.  I looked at your interaction on the HIV Community site and agree with the advice that Lizzie has given.  I have several other comments however.

First, I will acknowledge that it is poor practice for a health care provider to re-use any sort of equipment on more than one patient and I am a bit skeptical that this occurred.  Often  in medical practices (and dentist offices) the providers have "packs" of instruments that are prepared in advance, used for a patient and then cleaned and/or discarded.   They would not re-use scalpels.  You don't see them opening up tools one-by one because all of this is done in advance.  I suspect that this is what happened.  You might inquire.

I would not worry about this event but for your piece of mind, you might give the podiatrist a call.  EWH

[mark351]

Hi Dr Hook,

Thank you for your reply and i have emailed and called the practice with no response.  Would i endanger my wife if i had unprotected sex with my wife if they had reused the scalpel? Should i get tested at 6 weeks? I was also under the belief that you cannot get hiv from inanimate objects until i saw this post with DR Handsfield     http://www.medhelp.org/posts/HIV-Prevention/HIV-and-Friend/show/255407?controller=posts&action=show&id=#    Please let me know if my situation would be different.

Could the gauze carry enough blood onto the scalpel when he wiped off the one and wiped the new blade, and also i must say i did not see any blood on the gauze but it all happened so fast.  Just really worried that the gauze could be passing around the blood.  I am pretty sure that the waiting time of at least 3-5 minutes i was in the waiting room would have killed the virus but i am not the doctor and will not risk my wife's health on my own assumptions.  This will be my last question but please help me understand why this is a event not to worry about.  Thanks for all the work you do.

Mark

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Part of my answer to your question is based on fact, part on statistics and part on experience:

1.  Fact:  HIV does not live well in the environment.  It dies quickly on exposure to air and on the surface of inanimate objects.  

2.  Statistics.  IF the person seen before you had HIV (Unlikely), and if the blade or gauze were contaminated (also unlikely), the virus would most likely have died by the time it was used in the course of your care.  OF course there is a tiny, tiny chance, just as there is a chance that you will be struck by a meteorite while reading this but both are equally unlikely.

3.  Experience. There are no instances in my experience or reading of the medical literature in which HIV has been transmitted in the fashion you suggest.

Bottom line, this is not something to worry about and this is certainly not a reason to  avoid sex with your wife.  Take care. EWH