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saliva/spit in eyes

Im studying to become an RN & have many questions. A co-worker of mine was telling me of an experience she just had. While she was spending time with one of her acquaintences, she purposely closed her eyes completely at one point as she was facing him & talking to him and then all of a sudden he licked her eye while it was shut. So basically he licked her eye lid (skin) & her eyelashes The licking happened in one second and it was over. Then, she immedietly blinked the eye open (as a reflex) and then re-shut it. She then wiped off the saliva with her fingers. It wasnt a chunk of saliva (eg: hawk & spit on the ground), and it wasnt in a form of a spitball. It was a thin layer of saliva just like if you licked the tip of your finger. The eye lids function is to protect the eye from foreign objects,  such as falling rain and sometimes when people talk and spit shoots into the eye, the human eye naturally blinks as a reflex in order to keep the foreign object away. My question is, in this case, since the saliva was not in a form of spit balls and because it was not shot directly into an open eye, would the eyelids still help keep the saliva out of the eye once it was opened/before she wiped? or would the blinking make it worse and just bring any saliva INTO the eye.  Also, she does not know if this person was HIV positive. She was just wondering how much HIV risk is involved, if any.
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Avatar universal
Hello,

The type of contact that you describe is extremely low risk--probably close to zero risk. For the HIV virus to be transmitted in saliva by way of mucous membranes, the source person would need to have an open sore in their mouth and the person being "spit on" or "licked" would also have to have a disruption in the mucous membrane barrier (a laceration, cut, or sore).

I hope this was helpful.

~•~ Dr. Parks

This answer is not intended as and does not substitute for medical advice. The information presented in this posting is for patients’ education only. As always, I encourage you to see your personal physician for further evaluation of your individual case.
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Avatar universal
One last thing (since I ran out of space to type)....Im only asking that because im assuming that just like eye drops, the liquid might hit the rim of your eye/eyelashes and you BLINK a few times to bring the eyedrop into the eye. Am I wrong? Maybe I am overanalyzing this situation and the comparison is not the same because after all, the eye was closed to begin with. We called two HIV hotlines and asked them if you could transmit HIV through spitting in the eye and they said NO because it wasnt in a form break milk, blood, vaginal fluid, seman. So assuming theres little to no risk with spitting INTO the eye, im assuming theres definetly no risk with the eye closed.


Thanks again!
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