needle stick

[worriedsick7]

i am a nurse and was stuck with a dirty 22g blood draw needle that was inserted in a pt back in december. well i was wearing a glove and you can see where it entered the glove. on my finger there was no blood and i applied alcohol to see if the skin was broken because it would burn and it didnt. any ways i showed it to the manager and they ignored it and said it was nothing but i am still worried bc they never tested the pt. i had a pcr hcv test done at 7 weeks in which no viral load was detected. i had a rapid hiv test done at 5,7,9,11 and 12 weeks all negative. here is my concern, i got two 4mg decadron shots one three weeks after exposure and antother 4 weeks after exposure. i also was experiecing a sore throat and swollen lymph nodes and a low grade fever but it could have been more but the decadron was given to me so it can mask infection symptoms such as fever and rash. my question is would the two 4mg decadron shots exactly a week apart (total of 8mg) inhibit hiv antibody prodcution thus resulting in my subsequent testing to be false negative. supposedly i had mono but the dr says my monospot was negative and i didnt have symptoms bc of the decadron but he is unsure with hiv. my mono IGG antibodies were positive and that how we figured i had mono but no heterphile antibodies when i got tested for mono two weeks after my symptoms and a weeks after my decadron shot. please help i am so worried that the decadron suppressed my immune system and my tests were false negatives. what is your opinion? how much faith can i put on my negative tests results

[worriedsick7]

how conclusive are 12 week tests. how many people produce antibody by the 12 weeks test

[Philip D Parks, MD, MPH, MOccH, FACOEM]

Hi,

You can place the same amount of confidence in the negative 12 week test result that you would place in the test if you had not received the decadron. It is difficult to quantify the risk of false negatives given the history you have given--however, the risk is likely very low.

You should have testing again at 6 months (for Hepatitis C and HIV) according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control).

I hope that this is helpful.

Please feel free to keep this correspondence going.

~ Dr. Parks