HIV & Sharps Biohazard Container.

[nell248]

Hi, I would like to ask a question and before I do please no funny or rude comments as I am truly suffering from HIV OCD. I am truly struggling with this on a daily basis and am getting psychological treatment. I was in the hospital doing a test and I keep thinking that I put my hand in the sharps biohazard container. Can you get HIV this way if you stuck your hand in a bio hazard sharps container? I don't even go to doctors or hospitals anymore b/c of how bad my HIV OCD is and am working hard on it now. It is a huge reason I avoid dr. offices and hospitals but I can't stop thinking this happened so somebody humor me and tell me what is the possibilty of getting HIV through this incident from a sharps container? Thanks and sorry for troubling you all.

[LauraAtkn]

If a sharp in the container had been used on a patient with a blood bourne virus then it is possible to become infected with the disease if the said sharp punctured your skin.

Hope this helps
Dental Nurse

[kickanxietysbutt]

You said you keep thinking that you put your hand in the biohazard container.  Did you actually do this?  If not, then you obviously have nothing to worry about.  Even if you did, the only way you could contract HIV is by a syringe puncturing through your skin.  Even then, the risk is still very minimal.

[caregiver222]

You could, but this is unlikely. In most all modern hospitals syringes have a plastic slide on cover that goes over the point of the trochar (needle) before it is dropped in the Sharps. When the nurse is finished with the injection she slides the protective cover over the tip.  Thus, even if you swished your hand around inside you would not contact a needle. Other systems use a "needle clip" that snips the end of the needle and the sharps is a small plastic box containing these needle tipe. In general the only needles that may be uncapped that go into the sharps are bicarb, epinephrine and other cardiac drugs used during an arrest that are only inserted into the tubing of the intravenous line. Years ago needles were placed directly into the box, but even then the liklihood of contracting HIV, even with an actual needle stick were very small.