Member Comments are provided by individuals and reflect their personal opinions only. Under NO circumstances should you act on any advice or opinion posted in this forum. ALWAYS check with your personal physician before taking any action regarding your health! MedHelp International and our partners, sponsors and affiliates have no obligation to monitor any comments posted on this site, or the content and/or accuracy of such exchanges. MedHelp International does not endorse the views of any user.
HIV Prevention (Expert Forum)
Very concerned because I am planning to have my first child
Answered by
University of Washington
Seattle - WA
This forum is limited to prevention of HIV and to safe sex in general. If you believe you might have been exposed to HIV and want help to judge your risk, would like advice about HIV testing, or have questions about the effectiveness of condoms or the risks associated with specific sexual practices, this is the site for you.
IMPORTANT
No questions will be accepted on the treatment of HIV/AIDS or its complications, viral load, and similar topics. If you have questions about a specific STD other than HIV/AIDS, please visit the STD Forum. Questions that do not pertain to the above topics will be removed from the forum.
If you have not done so, please review other threads in our archives for questions similar to yours and Dr. Handsfield's replies. Questions that duplicate other frequent ones, for which abundant replies exist, and that have little educational value for other forum users, will be DELETED WITHOUT RESPONSE. YOUR PAYMENT WILL NOT BE REFUNDED. The most common examples of such questions are those about low risk exposures to HIV, such as oral sex, condom- protected intercourse hand-to-genital exposure, and nonsexual contact with possibly infected blood or body fluids as well as symptoms of early HIV infection.
No questions will be accepted on the treatment of HIV/AIDS or its complications, viral load, and similar topics. If you have questions about a specific STD other than HIV/AIDS, please visit the STD Forum. Questions that do not pertain to the above topics will be removed from the forum.
If you have not done so, please review other threads in our archives for questions similar to yours and Dr. Handsfield's replies. Questions that duplicate other frequent ones, for which abundant replies exist, and that have little educational value for other forum users, will be DELETED WITHOUT RESPONSE. YOUR PAYMENT WILL NOT BE REFUNDED. The most common examples of such questions are those about low risk exposures to HIV, such as oral sex, condom- protected intercourse hand-to-genital exposure, and nonsexual contact with possibly infected blood or body fluids as well as symptoms of early HIV infection.
Very concerned because I am planning to have my first child
by ABCXYZ808, May 07, 2008 09:04AM
Hi Doctor I went through all related archived threads and know it is no or low risks for my situations. However because I am planning to have my first child with my wife and maybe have no time to do any re-assurance testing recently, so I am here to bother you a little bit. Here are my 2 situations that concern me:
1. I went to one large scale public event this weekend and there is only "temporary & removeable plastic room", you know that kind of public toilet like a stall. There is no flushing water but only "human waste". (sorry to make it disgusting) Unfortunately i got some splashback on bottom of my butt and even some on tip & hole of my penis. i concerned very much is there any hiv risk if those never-been-flushed and never-been-cleaned fluids contain hiv?
2. i went to a public shower room after swimming and didn't take my slippers. so i had shower with my feet “naked” directly touched with the floor. I have some fungus fissure on the feet sole and toes, which have been directly exposed and touched with the ground and everything possible. It is said that area has certain rate of HIV infection. Because it is public area and if there is any HIV virus on the ground (I know risk is low, I just want to consult with you if there is any risk for this kind of scenario?) do you think there is any risk that any possible HIV virus could infect me through my fissure on my feet? You know the ground is very wet and there could be anything out there in the public area.
Doctor pls help evaluate the risk and tell whether i need to have hiv antibody test to ensuer i am ok before have my wife pregnant. I know i may be a little overreacting but pls understand it is about my wife and child's life and health, so i want to be 100% assurance. If your answer is "No risk" can you kindly explain a little bit why from medical perspective.
Thank you very much.
1. I went to one large scale public event this weekend and there is only "temporary & removeable plastic room", you know that kind of public toilet like a stall. There is no flushing water but only "human waste". (sorry to make it disgusting) Unfortunately i got some splashback on bottom of my butt and even some on tip & hole of my penis. i concerned very much is there any hiv risk if those never-been-flushed and never-been-cleaned fluids contain hiv?
2. i went to a public shower room after swimming and didn't take my slippers. so i had shower with my feet “naked” directly touched with the floor. I have some fungus fissure on the feet sole and toes, which have been directly exposed and touched with the ground and everything possible. It is said that area has certain rate of HIV infection. Because it is public area and if there is any HIV virus on the ground (I know risk is low, I just want to consult with you if there is any risk for this kind of scenario?) do you think there is any risk that any possible HIV virus could infect me through my fissure on my feet? You know the ground is very wet and there could be anything out there in the public area.
Doctor pls help evaluate the risk and tell whether i need to have hiv antibody test to ensuer i am ok before have my wife pregnant. I know i may be a little overreacting but pls understand it is about my wife and child's life and health, so i want to be 100% assurance. If your answer is "No risk" can you kindly explain a little bit why from medical perspective.
Thank you very much.
Doctor's Answer
by H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D., May 07, 2008 09:12AM
, May 07, 2008 09:12AM
I know your concerns are well meant. But if you think about it, the special consequences do not have any effect on the chance you caught HIV during one of the events you are worried about. In the entire 30 years of the known worldwide HIV/AIDS epidemic, not one person has ever been infected by contact in showers or toilets. (Of course, I'm not referring to sex or needle-sharing that might have happened in those settings!) If such exposure could transmit HIV, it would not be classified as an STD; and the infection would be a hundred times more common than it is.
As to the biological reasons, they have been explained many times on this forum. It takes exposure to lots of virus to get infected, and those virus particles have to be exposed to certain kinds of cells in the body. It is biologically complex; for more detail, you're going to have to do your own reading. For now, just trust me: HIV simply cannot be caught in the ways you imagine. You are not at risk and do not need testing.
If you have further questions about it, you probalby can find useful dialog over on the HIV community forum. But no follow-up in this thread, please. There is no information you can provide that would change my opinion or advice.
Best wishes- HHH, MD
As to the biological reasons, they have been explained many times on this forum. It takes exposure to lots of virus to get infected, and those virus particles have to be exposed to certain kinds of cells in the body. It is biologically complex; for more detail, you're going to have to do your own reading. For now, just trust me: HIV simply cannot be caught in the ways you imagine. You are not at risk and do not need testing.
If you have further questions about it, you probalby can find useful dialog over on the HIV community forum. But no follow-up in this thread, please. There is no information you can provide that would change my opinion or advice.
Best wishes- HHH, MD
On top of that I had it made very clear to me today from Sydney sexual health clinic, that 3 thins cause hiv Penetrated vaginal and anal sex and drug using, anything else is virtually no risk and if you did get it another way, you wold be the first ever. Good luck to you and your wife and your new child.