I could use some clarification

[dazednconfused22]

Hi Dr.

Over the summer I found out that an acquaintance of mine had been diagnosed positive. At first this wasn't a big deal, but being a hypochondriac that I am, I started to trace back any possible way I could have gotten HIV from him. I've been stressing out A LOT over the past few months even though I know I haven't put myself in a high-risk scenario. At any rate, I've found myself stressing more and more and I'm SICK of it. I could really use your help to gain some insight into my situation.

1. I primarily became concerned after I smoked out of a glass pipe after him. It is to my understanding that nobody has ever gotten HIV this way, and that there would have to be more blood on the pipe than this event would allow. Is this correct?

2. My roommate  had sex about 2 years ago with 2 women(one episode for each woman) that the + person has had sex with. There is no way of knowing if he was positive at the time, but I have to automatically assume he was. I have shared eye drops(sometimes with the nozzle touching my eyeball) with my roommate many times and I have read on the internet that HIV can be transmitted this way. Is this correct?

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Your post is a bit hard to follow but let me try to address the questions that seem to be being asked.  Just to be sure, you are concerned about having gotten HIV from your roomates who might have gotten HIV from contact with the person who has been diagnosed as having HIV.  Lets go to the questions:

1.  Smoking on a glass pipe after the HIV infected person.  No risk, even if you or this person had a sore or even blood on the pipe.  No one has ever gotten HIV from an exposure of this sort..
2.  Could you have gotten HIV from using your roomate's eye drops.  Her risk is having had sex with women who the positive person had also had sex with at some time in the past.  Again,. no risk at all.  
3.  Could you have gotten HIV from a splash in the shower after your roomate (who you have no idea is infected and is probably not) used the shower.  The suggested route of infection would be a splash from a razor used hours before which remained in the shower.  Again, no risk whatsoever.


Bottom line, each of the events you describe was no risk and does not warrant concern or testing.   There is zero chance of you getting HIV from the exposures you describe.  EWH

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Sharing eye drops is not a good idea becasue otehr infection like conjunctivitis can be spread that way.  On the other hand, HIV has never been spread that way.  I said that before.

Smoking pot daily will not delay your immune response.  EWH

[dazednconfused22]

Thanks again, Dr. Hook.

I guess we can wrap this thread up.

Be well.

[dazednconfused22]

Thanks, Dr. Hook.

I appreciate the quick response. I just wanted to clarify that question 2 was basically asking if sharing eye drops can be a route of transmission. And one last question...I am a daily marijuana smoker. Will marijuana delay antibody production/comprimise my immune system.

I realize that my anxiety and ocd are getting the best of me. But having a doctor take my specific questions really helps. I think I might seek counseling sometime in the near future.

[dazednconfused22]

3. Finally, my other roommate dated a friend of the + positive person who could have used steroids with the + person. I have no idea if they shared needles or not, but I have to assume they did. In the shower, my roommates razor fell and I held it up into the streaming water to clean it off and I'm afraid that blood/infected water could have gotten into my eyes as I remember water splashing in/around my eyes. It was probably 2 to 3 hours after my roommate used the shower and possible used the razor.

I know that these seem like far fetched transmission scenarios, but I literally spend 90 percent of my day thinking about it, and I also have found so much conflicting information on the internet that I decided it would be best to talk to a doctor. I'm out of the window period for the pipe incident, but not the eye drops or razor incident.