Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
April 02, 2024, 04:32:49 am

Login with username, password and session length


Members
  • Total Members: 37617
  • Latest: NChio
Stats
  • Total Posts: 772996
  • Total Topics: 66312
  • Online Today: 219
  • Online Ever: 5484
  • (June 18, 2021, 11:15:29 pm)
Users Online
Users: 1
Guests: 182
Total: 183

Welcome


Welcome to the POZ Community Forums, a round-the-clock discussion area for people with HIV/AIDS, their friends/family/caregivers, and others concerned about HIV/AIDS.  Click on the links below to browse our various forums; scroll down for a glance at the most recent posts; or join in the conversation yourself by registering on the left side of this page.

Privacy Warning:  Please realize that these forums are open to all, and are fully searchable via Google and other search engines. If you are HIV positive and disclose this in our forums, then it is almost the same thing as telling the whole world (or at least the World Wide Web). If this concerns you, then do not use a username or avatar that are self-identifying in any way. We do not allow the deletion of anything you post in these forums, so think before you post.

  • The information shared in these forums, by moderators and members, is designed to complement, not replace, the relationship between an individual and his/her own physician.

  • All members of these forums are, by default, not considered to be licensed medical providers. If otherwise, users must clearly define themselves as such.

  • Forums members must behave at all times with respect and honesty. Posting guidelines, including time-out and banning policies, have been established by the moderators of these forums. Click here for “Do I Have HIV?” posting guidelines. Click here for posting guidelines pertaining to all other POZ community forums.

  • We ask all forums members to provide references for health/medical/scientific information they provide, when it is not a personal experience being discussed. Please provide hyperlinks with full URLs or full citations of published works not available via the Internet. Additionally, all forums members must post information which are true and correct to their knowledge.

  • Product advertisement—including links; banners; editorial content; and clinical trial, study or survey participation—is strictly prohibited by forums members unless permission has been secured from POZ.

To change forums navigation language settings, click here (members only), Register now

Para cambiar sus preferencias de los foros en español, haz clic aquí (sólo miembros), Regístrate ahora

Finished Reading This? You can collapse this or any other box on this page by clicking the symbol in each box.

Welcome to Do I Have HIV?

Welcome to the "Do I Have HIV?" POZ forum.

This special section of the POZ forum is for individuals who have concerns about whether or not they are HIV positive. Individuals are permitted to post up to three questions or responses in this forum.

Ongoing participation in the "Do I Have HIV?" forum (posting more than three questions or responses) requires a paid subscription, with secure payments made via PayPal.

A seven-day subscription is $9.99, a 30-day subscription is $14.99 and a 90-day subscription is $24.99.

Anyone who needs to post more than three messages in the "Do I Have HIV?" forum -- including past, present and future POZ Forums members -- will need to subscribe, with secure payments made via PayPal.

There is no charge to read threads in the "Do I Have HIV?" forum, nor will there be a charge for participating in any of the other POZ forums. In addition, the POZ Basics "HIV Transmission and Risks" and "HIV Testing" basics, will remain accessible to all.

NOTE: HIV testing questions will still need to be posted in the "Do I Have HIV?" forum; attempts to post HIV symptoms or testing questions in any other forums will be considered violations of our rules of membership and subject to time-outs and permanent bans.

To learn how to upgrade your Forums account to participate beyond three posts in the "Do I Have HIV?" Forum, please click here.

Thank you for your understanding and future support of the best online support service for people living with, affected by and at risk for HIV.

Author Topic: Realistic infection risk??  (Read 3272 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline themunk1

  • New Member
  • Posts: 1
Realistic infection risk??
« on: September 27, 2007, 08:08:11 am »
I was in a restaurant recently, and I cut my finger on a glass olive oil bottle that was on our table (the top of the bottle was chipped and quite sharp!).  The waiter had taken the bottle from another table to ours, so it's likely other people had been using it shortly before us.

My question is, if someone else had cut themself as well - which would have been easy to do given the chipped top - would there be any risk of HIV transmission?  I couldn't see any blood on the bottle, but I suppose there could have been a minute amount.  The bottle was on our table only a few minutes before I cut myself (minor cut, but it did bleed).

Is this a realistic risk or am I just being an idiot?  I've read about people becoming infected through broken glass in medical situations, but I'm hoping this is a completely different circumstance!

Thanks for your help!!

Mike

Offline jkinatl2

  • Member
  • Posts: 6,007
  • Doo. Dah. Dipp-ity.
Re: Realistic infection risk??
« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2007, 08:17:27 am »
This is not a realistic risk for HIV infection. The "few minutes" you mention were more than enough time to render HIV inactive - more to the point, there was not even visible blood, HIV infected or not, on the olive oil bottle.

HIV is infectious. It is not contagious. Were it as easy to spread as your fears suggest, the pandemic would be an extinction-level event. It is not.

I hope you are aware that most people do not have this unwarranted fear of and preoccupation with HIV. I further hope you find a professional with whom to resolve this fear. I suspect that medical and scientific facts alone will not be sufficient to do this, as there will always be chipped bottles, sewing needles, barbershop razors, and the like.

HIV is primarily spread through penetrative sexual contact, or sharing drug-injecting needles. It has been reported in medical emergency situations, but these comprise less than two hundred confirmed cases to date. Given the hundreds of thousands of needle-stick injuries and healthcare-related exposures to blood, it is obiously a VERY unlikely event, even in the most "opportune" circumstances.

Touching a chipped olive oil dispensor at an eating establishment is not at all a risk.

"Many people, especially in the gay community, turn to oral sex as a safer alternative in the age of AIDS. And with HIV rates rising, people need to remember that oral sex is safer sex. It's a reasonable alternative."

-Kimberly Page-Shafer, PhD, MPH

Welcome Thread

Offline Andy Velez

  • Global Moderator
  • Member
  • Posts: 34,126
Re: Realistic infection risk??
« Reply #2 on: September 27, 2007, 09:11:25 am »
Mike, this epidemic is going to be with us for a longtime to come so no one can afford to be unknowing about the basics of transmission. Read our lesson about this and you'll get the information you need. You can reach it through the Welcome thread which opens this section. That way you can protect yourself and be spared worrying needlessly as you have been over this recent incident.

Cheers,
Andy Velez

 


Terms of Membership for these forums
 

© 2024 Smart + Strong. All Rights Reserved.   terms of use and your privacy
Smart + Strong® is a registered trademark of CDM Publishing, LLC.