Blood in eye?

[bjj209]

Hello  ,

My main question for the forum moderators is how likely am I to catch HIV if infected blood is spilled into my eye?

My specific scenario is as follows: I'm a 21 year old healthy male and practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in my spare time (a grappling sport that is like a cross between wrestling and judo). I have been practicing this martial art for over 1 year now but have recently began to contemplate HIV contraction for several reasons:

1. I recently moved from a comfortable suburban gym to a rougher inner city one. The reason this is significant is that most of my training partners grew up as underprivileged youth who were surrounded by drugs and sex. Obviously this doesn't guarantee that they have HIV but I believe it greatly increases the chances.

2. A few weeks ago, I was sparring with someone who had a small cut on his forehead that neither of us noticed until after about 10 minutes of going at it. During this time, I felt a small drop of blood/sweat go into my eye which I quickly wiped off with my hands and continued rolling. During this sparring session, I also sustained a few deep scratches from his fingernails (I'm not sure if this increases my risk or not).

Afterwards, I went into the bathroom and cleaned myself off and noticed no signs of foreign blood on my body. Though, I'm 100% sure a drop of his blood or sweat dropped into my eye when we rolled so I've been nervous ever since.

So tell me, am I overreacting or did I just get legitimately exposed to HIV? It's been about 3 weeks and I've experienced no flu-like symptoms.

Let me know if you want me to be more specific. Thanks.

[Ann]

bj,

Yes, you are overreacting. Hiv is simply not transmitted in the ways you are imagining.

Hiv is a fragile, difficult to transmit virus that is primarily transmitted INSIDE the body, as in unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse where the virus never leaves the confines of the two bodies.

Once outside the body, small changes in temperature, and pH and moisture levels all quickly damage the virus and render it unable to infect.

I've yet to hear of anyone becoming infected through close-contact sports and I do not expect you to be the first. This pandemic has been around for over thirty years - if sports such as wrestling were risky, we'd know about it by now.

Sweat is not an infectious fluid and blood is only a problem when it is introduced directly into your blood stream, as happens when people share drug injecting equipment.

Here's what you need to know in order to avoid hiv infection:

You need to be using condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, every time, no exceptions until such time as you are in a securely monogamous relationship where you have both tested for ALL sexually transmitted infections together.

To agree to have unprotected intercourse is to consent to the possibility of being infected with an STI. Sex without a condom lasts only a matter of minutes, but hiv is forever.

Have a look through the condom and lube links in my signature line so you can use condoms with confidence.

ALTHOUGH YOU DO NOT NEED TO TEST OVER YOUR WRESTLING EXPERIENCES, anyone who is sexually active should be having a full sexual health care check-up, including but not limited to hiv testing, at least once a year and more often if unprotected intercourse occurs.

If you aren't already having regular, routine check-ups, now is the time to start. As long as you make sure condoms are being used for intercourse, you can fully expect your routine hiv tests to return with negative results.

Don't forget to always get checked for all the other sexually transmitted infections as well, because they are MUCH easier to transmit than hiv.

Use condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, correctly and consistently, and you will avoid hiv infection. It really is that simple!

Ann

[bjj209]

Hi ann,

Thanks for the reply but haven't there been documented cases of hiv being passed through blood in someones eye? Also, why would they test for hiv in sports such as boxing or mma if it wasn't passed in the way I described?

Sorry, im not trying to argue with you. I just want to set the record straight in my own mind.

Thanks.