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Hep C Risk?
Good evening eveyone, I'm a conatruction worker and use power tools on the daily. Today I used the company's drill bit to work on a project and accidently scratched my forearm with the bit. The scratch wasn't deep it stopped bleeding withing a few minutes after I cleaned it up. Since the drill bit is used by other employees,is there any potential risk from the incident of contracting Hep?
Thanks
Thanks
Thank you for clearing that up, I was misguided by all the information spread throughout the net.
1 Comments
I suggest trying primarily reputable sources like the CDC and in general avoid most personal non expert opinion.
We here are a community of patients who were or are infected with hep c and living with the effects of long term infection, treatment and the aftermath of having lived through all that. This is a support community and no one here is a medical expert.
We here are a community of patients who were or are infected with hep c and living with the effects of long term infection, treatment and the aftermath of having lived through all that. This is a support community and no one here is a medical expert.
If another worker who has hep c (bearing in mind only about 1% of the population has hep c) happened to cut themselves and bleed on the same drill and the blood had not been worn and abraided off by using the drill in theory there could be an extremely small risk but highly doubtful.
Bear in mind that even if a health care worker should experience an accidental needle stick involving a patient with known hep c their risk would only be about 1% of contracting hep c. So in the situation you describe your odds would obviously be many times less than that.
You are concerning yourself with the 1% chance the drill was used by someone with hep c plus the chance they cut them self with that specific drill and that the microscopic amount of blood had not been rubbed off by the use of the drill before you scratched yourself.
Really the odds you describe are so infinitesimally small to the point of being for all intents and purposes nonexistent.
I would concern myself more about getting a tetanus shot if you are not current.
Also please note that hep c today is about 98% curable so hep c is nothing to worry about in any event.
Bear in mind that even if a health care worker should experience an accidental needle stick involving a patient with known hep c their risk would only be about 1% of contracting hep c. So in the situation you describe your odds would obviously be many times less than that.
You are concerning yourself with the 1% chance the drill was used by someone with hep c plus the chance they cut them self with that specific drill and that the microscopic amount of blood had not been rubbed off by the use of the drill before you scratched yourself.
Really the odds you describe are so infinitesimally small to the point of being for all intents and purposes nonexistent.
I would concern myself more about getting a tetanus shot if you are not current.
Also please note that hep c today is about 98% curable so hep c is nothing to worry about in any event.
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