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Broken Glass

Hello,

A couple days ago I stepped on a small shard of glass at the pool while on vacation in Antigua.  It didn't look like it cut me very deeply, but it definitely cut the first layer of skin because I started bleeding for a few seconds.  The piece of glass was on the ground in the main entrance to the pool so it was a more heavily trafficked area.    What if someone had also cut themselves on the same piece of glass while walking only a couple minutes before and they had HIV?  Could I have been infected?  Do I need to get tested?  It didn't look like there was any blood on the glass by I am still very scared about this.  Thank you!
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Avatar universal
A related discussion, Hiv or hepatitis from glass shard? was started.
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300980 tn?1194929400
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Correct, even in that highly improbable circumstance.  EWH
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Avatar universal
Thank you.  Just to confirm - even if someone did in fact cut their foot minutes before I did on the glass, there would still be no risk because the virus would have died upon exposure to air?
Helpful - 0
300980 tn?1194929400
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
  Welcome back to our Forum. Your current question is rather similar to the one you asked of me in April and suggests a misunderstanding of how HIV is transmitted from person to person.  HIV in adults is transmitted only through sexual contact (genital, rector or, on very rare occasions through receiving oral sex) or injection of infected material direct, deep into tissue.  As I said in April "...Third, and most importantly, even if it was blood from a person with HIV, HIV is not transmitted with this sort of surface contact....).

In the circumstance that you describe, there is no meaningful risk for HIV.  It is unlikely that someone else had cut themselves on the glass before you did, the virus does not live outside the body and becomes non-infectious almost immediately on exposure to the air and environmental temperatures, and HIV is not transmitted on solid surfaces like a piece of glass (the virus may live slightly longer when inside of a hollow object like the inside of a needle).

I would not worry about HIV or hepatitis from this exposure.  There is no need for concern or for testing.  I hope my comments are helpful and reassuring.  EWH
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