HIV Exposure - semen & water

[Gazza2010]

Hi there,

Iam a 23y/o male and had a homosexual encounter about the 10 Sept 07. This is all we got up to, as well as my assessment of the situation - we were in the shower

1. I received unprotected oral sex from my partner - I believe infection risk is very low however I cannot confirm or deny if there was any blood in his mouth???

2. I masturbated him but he did not ejaculate - I am not concerned here either - no semen came into contact with my hand

3. My partner then masturbated himself till orgasm and ejaculated in his own hand

4. He then masturbated me

This is where my concern comes in:

a) He rinsed his hand in the shower after he ejaculated, what is the risk of infection if semen mixed in the water ran over my body, into my mouth or eyes or anus?

b) What is the risk of infection when he masturbated me if his hand was not rinsed of 100% of his semen?

I always considered these practices as safe, but now as I analyse the situation, I'm not to sure?

I had an elisa test at 6 weeks which came back negative - It has now been 9 weeks, if I do another elisa test, would a negative result be conclusive or should I wait till 3 months?

Many thanks

[Edward W Hook, MD]

The risk of what you have described is virtually non-existent,  Specifics:

1.  Blood in his mouth is not of concern to you.  You do not know that he is HIV infected.  Even if he is, there is no indication there was blood in his mouth.  Finally, the nature of this exposure is not risky for you.
2.  Contact of semen with your hand is not risky.  That this occurred in the shower makes it even less risky as any infectious material, were it there, would quickly be diluted and washed away.
3.  No risk to you.
4.  The that hand with which he masturbated then was used to masturbate you is sot a risky exposure, even if there was a small amount of residual semen (which is unlikely).
Finally, if he was infected (and statistically this is unlikely) for water that came from him to you in the process of rinsing off to infect you would be unheard of.

Once again, your exposure was very low risk.  Do not be concerned.  EWH

[Gazza2010]

Hi Doc,

Thank you for this post. I agree that there is a lack of good sex/HIV education in our schools - we only read about HIV related issues in headlines & magazines - all reporting horror stories!

For the sake of my education as well as for those who I can also educate, am I correct in saying that HIV is transmitted via unprotected vaginal/anal sex and sharing of needles with a HIV possitive individual and that testing is accurate from 6 weeks? Or is there more I should be aware of??

Thanks