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HIV risk: semen in eye through exposure with individual of high risk status

Hi all, I saw a couple of threads on this topic but wasn’t able to get a definitive answer.
I had an exposure with a trans CSW, and during ejaculation a drop (or two) got into my eye - didn’t burn etc then, but was slightly red the day after. Is this considered a risk at all - I know there aren’t documented cases of transmission through the eye in a non-occupational setting, but am concerned because of the high-risk status of the concerned individual.
Is the health of the eye and quantity of liquid a factor at all in this case?
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20620809 tn?1504362969
You have to remember that being worried is in your mind.  It's not always reality.  If you didn't have a risk at all for HIV, which you didn't, then your rash would therefore, have nothing to do with HIV. That is a rational way of looking at it. But anxiety is rarely rational and causes us to overthink and worry about unrealistic scenarios.  We all do it about something from time to time but the key is to recognize it.  This hopefully will go away for you.  If it doesn't, then I'd speak to a mental health professional about strategies to help with anxious thought.  
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Avatar universal
Your situation involves personal contact with an object in air (sperm) which is not a risk for hiv. No worries, because you can't get hiv from personal contact except unprotected penetrating vaginal or anal, neither of which you did. Analysis of large numbers of infected people over the 40 years of hiv history has proven that people don't get hiv in the way you are worried is a risk.
HIV is a fragile virus in air and saliva and is effectively instantly dead in air so the worst that could happen is dead virus rubbed you, and obviously anything which is dead cannot live again so you are good. Blood and cuts would not be relevant in your situation since the hiv has become effectively dead, so you don't have to worry about them to be sure that you are safe.
If your eye has a problem see doc but it has nothing to do with hiv.
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6 Comments
Thanks so much for your answer - if this is the case though, how come there are documented cases of this transmission route through blood in the eye (in occupational settings)? I understand that HIV is rendered weaker in contact with air.
Theory on this subject is scary, the CDC itself reports exposure of blood or semen to any mucous membrane including anal cavity, vagina or eye as a risk.
Do you think I need to get tested, or not necessary?
If you wish to concern yourself with a possibility akin to 1 in 10 million, that is certainly your choice, but the odds of almost ANYTHING else bad happening to you, including being trampled by an elephant or being killed  by a vending machine, are far higher than acquiring HIV in this manner.
Thanks both. Some humour never did go amiss. I had a final question - do you recommend I get tested basis this exposure, or given the risk you’ve stated, is it not necessary?
HIV experts do not recommend testing after an event like this.  Accordingly, neither do I.
Hi both, thanks for your answers earlier. A little worried now, because 2,5 weeks in I am starting to develop a rash of my upper body, basically red areas with some pimples - not sure what the ars rash looks like, but working myself up about this.
Any advice?
The advice is you can't have hiv. It is up to you to figure if a test will be beneficial, when you have received such advice.
hiv doctors do not diagnose from symptoms so no one here pays attention to symptoms that posters claim they have. Symptoms are only of interest to people who google for them, then try to do a diagnosis that a doctor wouldn't do.
Since you continue googling and examining your body hoping that a sort of magical answer can appear from looking at it, then it is not surprising that you are worried, because things like a rash can appear at any time for 1,000 other causes than hiv. Stop googling and you will be content.
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