Aa
HIV+ blood in my eye from patient
Hello everyone,
I am a dentist and last Friday, the 22nd, I was working on a patient who is HIV+. I had protective eyewear, but my carelessness, it was not securely placed over my eyes. I felt splashes of what was blood and saliva hit my eye and immediately rinsed it out. He had open cuts in his mouth. I disregarded prophylaxis because I read that this type of exposure has a 1 out of 1000 chance of transmission.
A few days later, I have been feeling unusually tired at work and at home. I spend most of the day craving sleep, when I am getting 8 hours everynight. At first I was nervous of what happened, but now I can clearly feel my body feeling different aside from that. My lymph nodes are slightly swollen.
I did get an antibody test for HIV two days later, but that won't show anything I'm assuming.
My questions are:
Has anyone out there had the same experience? Does the amout of blood and saliva dependent on risk for the eye?
Are these symptoms too early to deduce anything yet?
What would be the best test to detect HIV and how long would I have to wait?
Thanks.
I am a dentist and last Friday, the 22nd, I was working on a patient who is HIV+. I had protective eyewear, but my carelessness, it was not securely placed over my eyes. I felt splashes of what was blood and saliva hit my eye and immediately rinsed it out. He had open cuts in his mouth. I disregarded prophylaxis because I read that this type of exposure has a 1 out of 1000 chance of transmission.
A few days later, I have been feeling unusually tired at work and at home. I spend most of the day craving sleep, when I am getting 8 hours everynight. At first I was nervous of what happened, but now I can clearly feel my body feeling different aside from that. My lymph nodes are slightly swollen.
I did get an antibody test for HIV two days later, but that won't show anything I'm assuming.
My questions are:
Has anyone out there had the same experience? Does the amout of blood and saliva dependent on risk for the eye?
Are these symptoms too early to deduce anything yet?
What would be the best test to detect HIV and how long would I have to wait?
Thanks.
Totally agree. Dentists are usually far more current with OSHA and the CDC guidelines.
If you really are a dentist, make sure you report this.
Occupational exposure might make a difference for insurance purposes (I think)
Yeah, and follow the OSHA procedures
Occupational exposure might make a difference for insurance purposes (I think)
Yeah, and follow the OSHA procedures
I can't believe that you are a practicing dentist and you are posting questions like this in a support forum. I don't want to hear, you don't know about occupational exposures in relation to your practice. To even have a question on saliva, makes me wonder if you are even a dentist. You of all people have to establish universal precations within you facility and you have to know the OSHA and the CDC guidelines on possible exposure to infectious diseases, which tell you what you should do in case of a possible exposure. If you don't have them within your facility, you sir, are in violation. You've done your baseline test that is required, then you should have been told when to do your follow up tests.
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