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Extremely worried - hiv exposure?
Dear Dr.,
I am concerned as I lived with a diabetic and had close interaction with her. She either injected herself or tested her blood sugar while we were at the cinema. It was dark but I could see that she was doing one of these things. I felt something go into my eye at this same time and stupidly instead of washing my eye I rubbed it. It stung a little. I am concerned that this could have been blood. Around the same time (a week later) I bumped into a bag of used diabetic needles at the apartment we lived in but i do not think i pricked myself as I checked for marks etc. If I did I am also concerned. I since left this apartment. Approximately 4 or 5 weeks later I developed symptoms consistent with ARS. The symptoms were confirmed by a doctor. I had a fever, huge swollen lymph nodes (confirmed), very sore throat (I was smoking a lot at the time and working long hour days), muscle aches, chills, headache. I did not observe a rash apart from one dark spot but this could have been a heat rash as I had this at the time. This lasted from wednesday afternoon until saturday afternoon. By Saturday I went shopping and was hanging out with friends etc. But I still felt slightly weak. I was fine until the Thursday following that. That night I could not finish my dinner and felt nausea. I then lost my appetite from this Thursday until the Monday. I felt nausea and loss of appetite. I stopped smoking around the time of my first symptoms. But another two weeks later after all symptoms when I had a cigarette and Chinese food I threw up. Since this time (4 weeks ago) I have felt perfectly well and back to working 10 hour days etc. I have a demanding job. Please give me some insight. I am extremely worried that I may have got blood in my eye and have a risk. I am not making up any of these symptoms. I also feel it is extemely weird for me to have lost my appetite for this long. I am a big eater and have never randomly lost my appetite like this. Thank you.
I am concerned as I lived with a diabetic and had close interaction with her. She either injected herself or tested her blood sugar while we were at the cinema. It was dark but I could see that she was doing one of these things. I felt something go into my eye at this same time and stupidly instead of washing my eye I rubbed it. It stung a little. I am concerned that this could have been blood. Around the same time (a week later) I bumped into a bag of used diabetic needles at the apartment we lived in but i do not think i pricked myself as I checked for marks etc. If I did I am also concerned. I since left this apartment. Approximately 4 or 5 weeks later I developed symptoms consistent with ARS. The symptoms were confirmed by a doctor. I had a fever, huge swollen lymph nodes (confirmed), very sore throat (I was smoking a lot at the time and working long hour days), muscle aches, chills, headache. I did not observe a rash apart from one dark spot but this could have been a heat rash as I had this at the time. This lasted from wednesday afternoon until saturday afternoon. By Saturday I went shopping and was hanging out with friends etc. But I still felt slightly weak. I was fine until the Thursday following that. That night I could not finish my dinner and felt nausea. I then lost my appetite from this Thursday until the Monday. I felt nausea and loss of appetite. I stopped smoking around the time of my first symptoms. But another two weeks later after all symptoms when I had a cigarette and Chinese food I threw up. Since this time (4 weeks ago) I have felt perfectly well and back to working 10 hour days etc. I have a demanding job. Please give me some insight. I am extremely worried that I may have got blood in my eye and have a risk. I am not making up any of these symptoms. I also feel it is extemely weird for me to have lost my appetite for this long. I am a big eater and have never randomly lost my appetite like this. Thank you.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Welcome to our Forum. I will provide some information that I hope will be helpful to you but in cases such as yours, really the very best way to resolve such concerns is to go and get tested- not because there is a meaningful risk, there is not, but becasue laboratory tests are so defintive.
In your case, neither the potential/possible "splash" nor the fact that you bumped against a bag of used needles is in any way concerning for HIV exposure. It is most unlikely that your room mate had HIV and even if she did, no one has ever been infected with HIV through the sorts of exposures you have described.
Your flu-like illness was almost certainly a coincidence and nothing more. If it had been due to recently acquired HIV however, your HIV blood test would have become positive within a week after your flu-like illness began. Its for that reason that I suggested you get tested. When your test is negative, as I'm sure it will be, you can be confident that you did not get HIV and that your flu-like illness was not due to HIV.
I hope these comments are helpful. EWH
In your case, neither the potential/possible "splash" nor the fact that you bumped against a bag of used needles is in any way concerning for HIV exposure. It is most unlikely that your room mate had HIV and even if she did, no one has ever been infected with HIV through the sorts of exposures you have described.
Your flu-like illness was almost certainly a coincidence and nothing more. If it had been due to recently acquired HIV however, your HIV blood test would have become positive within a week after your flu-like illness began. Its for that reason that I suggested you get tested. When your test is negative, as I'm sure it will be, you can be confident that you did not get HIV and that your flu-like illness was not due to HIV.
I hope these comments are helpful. EWH
Thank you Edward. One last thing. Do the symptoms I had for instance - losing my appetite almost a week after the flu illness sound typical of hiv? I read somewhere that sometimes stomach symptoms are a sign of hiv stage 2 (nausea, vomiting etc). I know you can not diagnose hiv based on symptoms but just wondering your thoughts on this. I will get testing.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
I am aware of laboratory accidents when very large amounts of HIV virus were splashed into persons eyes and caused infection. this has happened only a very few times. On the other hand, to my knowledge, there are no well documented cases wherret he sort of splash you describe has lead to infection 0-NONE!! If you hare getting you information about such cases, my advice wold be to ignore them. The internet is full of mis-information.
As far as anxiety about testing is concerned, please remember, testing will not change the result. It will either prove that you are not infected (the most likely outcome by far) or show that you are so that something can be done. On the other hand, worrying about the possbility is not a useful approach. EWH
As far as anxiety about testing is concerned, please remember, testing will not change the result. It will either prove that you are not infected (the most likely outcome by far) or show that you are so that something can be done. On the other hand, worrying about the possbility is not a useful approach. EWH
Thank you. This is reassuring. However i have heard there have been a few cases in which hiv has been transmitted through eye contact. How much blood did this involve? The reason I have not been tested so far is I have been fairly scared to do so and I have some anxiety regarding infecting my boyfriend (we have protected sex though).
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