medical student - occupational risk

Dear

Sir/Madam,

I am a postgraduate student doing MD in pharmacology. I never had sexual exposure, no high risk behavior. I am in deep worry about one incidence in past. which goes as follow:

I was performing plasma ascorbic acid level in diabetes patient's (the hiv status of  these patients is not known all between age group 37- 59) sample (8-10 samples) which I collected 3-4 weeks before the procedure & then centrifuged and stored in refrigerator. I performed this procedure on 18th June 2009. While performing I could not use the gloves. But I took care that I will not get in contact with serum. I used pipette with a long tip to transfer serum from one test tube to another. Few time i removed the tip of the pipette and attached new tip with bare hand.But tried hard to hold only the topmost portion of the tip which was not in contact with serum.

I used to dip the same used tip in distilled water contained in beaker(250ml) after its use to clean it and take another sample. By mistake I used the same distilled water to rinse the 2-3 test tubes. Again I was careful but some of this distilled water fell on my fingers of left hand. After 10 - 15 min I washed my hands under the running tap water.

As far as injuries are concerned (open fresh cuts, dermatitis and wound), to the best of my knowledge I had no injuries. (i tried hard to recall about all the injuries, but 99.99% i think i had no injuries)  I play guitar so the skin of my fingers is hard and rough. I am vaccinated to hepatitis b.

This procedure was actually performed on 2 - 3 occasion, one on 18th June and July (2009). From whatever i remember about the incidence i think i have not come in contact with serum directly. Since few days I feel that if such exposure poses any risk of HIV then I am in trouble. Even this thought has disturbed me. So how much risk I am having if HIV is considered? Do I need to undertake any test to rule out the same? because i am at such a point of time that its very difficult to undertake such test as i am having final exam in June 2011. plz help me out.

[Teak]

You never had a risk.

[joggen]

Absolutely no risk from this situation and no need to test. There is no plausible mechanism through which you could have been infected in this situation.

[harsh14]

thanks a lot for ur comment it helped me a lot