Attacked by some crazy guys. Now worried about HIV.

[vivianLee]

Dear Doctor,

Last night, when I was taking a walk on a street's sidewalk with my husband, I was hit by some fluid bag on my naked left arm, which was thrown out from a driving car passing us. The guys laughed crazily after they hit me using that fluid bag and drove away quickly before I realized what happened. The car's speed was so fast that the fluid bag broke once it hit on my arm. Lots of unknown fluid came out and wet both my left arm and my left side of skirt. After I got back home 7 or 8 minutes later, I noticed the fluid on my arm was almost dried up, but the skirt was still wet. My left arm also got red due to the hit by the fluid bag. But I had no any other open sores or cuts on my left arm or left side body at that time.

Now I begin to worry because I couldn't tell what this fluid was (seemed to have no smell). What if the fluid in the bag contained some HIV positive guys' body fluid, such as blood, urine, semen or saliva? Will I be infected by this directly contact/exposure of large amount of HIV contaminated fluid for about 7-8 minutes? I am in my 34th week's pregnancy now. I really don't want anything bad happen to me or my baby. So please give me some information to help me calm down! Thank you!

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

If the fluid wasn't blood or obviously bloody, the chance it contained enough HIV to infect you is close to zero.  Even in infected persons, the virus doesn't appear in substantial amounts in urine or saliva, for example--and it seems unlikely the creeps got ahold of blood plasma, for example.  And if there was enough liquid to splash, it clearly wasn't semen or genital secretions--and undoubtedly you would have recognized their characteristic odors.  On top of all this, even with blood from an HIV infected person, the chance of infection if you didn't get a definite, bleeding cut is very low.

To some extent this is speculation, but when even vaginal sex between an infected and uninfected person carries only a 1 in 1000 chance of transmission, this sort of exposure clearly has a very low risk even if the material was a body fluid.  It was surely an unpleasant event and I'm sorry it happened to you.  But I really wouldn't worry about HIV risk.

The only other thought I have is to call your local police dept.  Not that they'll do anything, surely they won't; but you might find that this event is part of a pattern, i.e. conceivably they might know what the liquid is based on other citizens' reports.

Good luck--  HHH, MD

[vivianLee]

Dr. -HHH, thanks a lot for your quick reply, which helps me cool down a lot. I checked my arm and left side body after I got home last night. There were no any cuts or open wounds on my arm except for the redness hit by the fluid bag. I also checked the wet stain on my skirt and arm, and I didn't see visiuable blood either. So I guess the fluid didn't contain large quantity of blood.

But I have another concern: since I couldn't clean up my arm and body untill 7-8 minutes later after I got home, do you think this long-time contact/exposure with the fluid would increase the chance of virus entering my system even my skin is intact and healthy?

My husband said it is lucky that those crazy guys didn't hit that fluid bag onto my belly directly. Otherwise, my baby would get hurt, which might be worse.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

No, duration of contact with your skin doesn't signficantly change the low risk.

HHH, MD

[vivianLee]

Thank you very much for your answer, Dr. HHH. I really appreciate. It's just so hard for me to completely get rid of this anxiety. My final question is: I also noticed some petechia appeared on my left arm where I was hit by the fluit bag. Is this petechia also a kind of open wound? Does it increase the chance of being infected?

Thanks a lot for your patience and your knowledge!

[vivianLee]

Dear Dr. HHH,

Is petechia hit by the fluid bag also a kind of open wound? Does it increase the chance of being infected? Thanks.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Any petechiae (minor bleeding in the superficial layers of the skin) likely are due to the blunt trauma of the thing hitting your skin.  I doubt this materially increases the risk of HIV inoculation.

But I get the feeling you're still pretty worried, despite this reassurance.  If so, have an HIV test in a month or so; I have told many other questioners on this forum that a negative test result probably will be more reassuring than anything I can say.

HHH, MD