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Avatar universal

Hiv and scared

I am in  the medical field. I had a patient that came in and he had hiv. He was on  medication. I went to do his bp  and touched his sweat. I am finding mixed information  on the internet. Some sites say sweat does not contain  hiv and is not infectious  . Some say it does and it can be. What if the sweat had microscopic blood in it? I was tested 4th generation ag/ab  42 days and 77 days(negative) . However now I have been having symptoms. I have what looks to be oral thrush,  orange nails,diarrhea,  I get tension and migraine headaches. Rapid weight loss, nausea, sometimes I feel the room is spinning. I am so scared . Please help.  
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Avatar universal
I think you just panicking about the incident. However,hiv can't be passed  to another individual  unless there's  a open cut. In other words, blood/ body fluids on an open cut contact.Just relax.
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Touching an open cut will not give you hiv either even if both people were bleeding. To even have a theoretical risk, the woulds would need to be deep gaping with the virus thrust deeply inside and the pain would be so intense that neither person would let anyone touch like that. Deep gaping like in a car accident.
Are you sure about this?  HIV can be passed in many ways you say it can't -- it's unlikely, yes, but not impossible.  This has nothing to do with the person posting, but anyone who thinks they do have it can't lose anything by getting tested.  Won't help an anxiety problem, though.  I just think, for accuracy's sake, we shouldn't confuse low probability of an individual contact with impossibility or the heightened risk of repeated low risk exposures.  I mean, it's really unlikely you're going to slip on a banana peel, but if you keep walking on them every day eventually you will.
Well, sure, and at least 30 people have been killed by vending machines, but using a vending machine is still considered a "no risk" activity.  

This is even lower risk, because no one has ever contracted HIV from minor wound-to-wound contact, and never, ever, by touching sweat.  Sweat doesn't carry HIV.

He can test if he wants, and of course no one here can stop him, but in my long experience, people who have no risk, and high anxiety, and test anyway just return to question the test results.  It's an anxiety problem that isn't usually relieved by testing, unfortunately.
Paxiled I gave the advice that is often posted on the HIV forum, all of which is reviewed by the moderators. The moderators have posted that forum relies on the advice of expert doctors. So it is their advice that I wrote, not my personal opinion.
Hey, guys, I said this doesn't apply to this poster -- this poster has no risk whatsoever.  I was just stating that the low risk for others who actually have had some exposure that contains genuine risk isn't as low as advertised because so many people repeat these low risk behaviors over and over, which turns them into much higher risk events.  Giving a misleading reading of probability doesn't help anyone -- but yeah, you guys are absolutely right about this poster, who has no risk at all. Thought I said that, and if I didn't, oops.
Avatar universal
None of us are experts and since you're in the medical field I assume you know people who are.  You don't have HIV, you know that, right?  But whether you have something else or are just worrying yourself to death for some reason is what you need to find out.
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2 Comments
Thank you for taking the time to  answer my question  .I truly think this might have been a hormone imbalance.  Or the stress of having a new born . I took a test to easy my mind and it did indeed come back negative . I am sorry if I sounded crazy. I just got a bit nervous. Thank you for being understanding.
If you just delivered, your hormones are going nuts.  You might have a bit of post-partum depression going on.   Are you able to exercise?  Meditate?  I know, you're a new parent, but if you need to find some time to yourself to get back into balance.  You've been through a hormonal hurricane.
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