Trying to solve a medical mystery

[jimmy420]

Hi folks,

I am new to this site and I suffer from HIV anxiety. My anxiety doesn't stem from sexual risk or drug use, rather blood exposure on fingers along with superficial cuts. Long story short, I am starting to overcome my fears.

However, as a college student, I have a hard time accepting the fact that superficial cuts + blood = No risk. I guess this reason is because we've been taught since elementary school that cuts + blood = disaster. I remember one teacher telling me in elementary school that we should try to wear long sleeved shirts. This was during the mid 90s so I guess people didn't really know much then.

I am not saying that I don't trust you guys, rather I just want to see the medical literature that shows that cuts have to be deep and requiring stitches. As a researcher myself, I need valid medical proof. You don't have to explain it or anything in depth. Just link the source.

This will be beneficial in 2 ways. The 1st way is that you won't have to write page long responses to people with cuts. The 2nd way is that it will help people with anxiety and they won't clutter the forums as much.

Thanks,

[RapidRod]

1. No matter how many times we explain it, it never works.
2. It doesn't matter how many times it has been explain people will continue to ask the same questions without looking to see if their questions were asked and answered on the forum such as you just did.

[Andy Velez]

You can read our lesson on transmission. There's a link to it in the Welcome thread which opens this section.

We prefer to respond to specific incidents here. I can tell you that in over 26 years of working in the epidemic I have never known of a single confirmed case of transmission to a person through cuts, nicks or other such as you are concerned about. Not one!

And I can tell you now that we're not going to get into a back and forth about this concern of yours. It's really about your feelings and not HIV science facts. You need to get that sorted out in the proper professional setting and we cannot do that here.

[jimmy420]

1. No matter how many times we explain it, it never works.
2. It doesn't matter how many times it has been explain people will continue to ask the same questions without looking to see if their questions were asked and answered on the forum such as you just did.

On your site you say that....

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.

On top of that it says.......

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

I have read your explanation but all I ask is for a medical link that states "THESE SPECIFIC CELLS ARE FOUND DEEP IN THE BODY AND ARE NOT EXPOSED VIA SUPERFICIAL CUTS."

Why is that so difficult? That actually creates doubt within me. That makes me think that you merely relying on your interpretation of things and not concrete medical information. That is now how science works and you know that. I really don't think that is out of line.

[Ann]

jimmy,

I have some of the relevant info you want, but it is on a computer that is currently out of commission. I found my information by reading studies and other information on reputable internet sites - but I don't have the time to re-google for you. Why don't you do it yourself? I believe some of this information is also here in the archives of this particular forum. I suggest you search the posts from a member who goes by the username of jkinatl2. I just don't have the time to do the detective work for you. Sorry, but I have a life too.

Ann

[jimmy420]

jimmy,

I have some of the relevant info you want, but it is on a computer that is currently out of commission. I found my information by reading studies and other information on reputable internet sites - but I don't have the time to re-google for you. Why don't you do it yourself? I believe some of this information is also here in the archives of this particular forum. I suggest you search the posts from a member who goes by the username of jkinatl2. I just don't have the time to do the detective work for you. Sorry, but I have a life too.

Ann

Thanks Ann for the reply but I can't find such literature. However, I did find 2 studies where they focus on HIV transmission outside of sex and drug use.

http://www.hpa.org.uk/cdph/issues/CDPHVol1/no2/hiv2.pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2491601/

The first link is very interesting. I believe it is the only study done of its kind. It actually documents suspected HIV transmission from routes other than the primary ones. Out of 34000 cases, ONLY 19 fall outside of the primary routes. Out of these 19 cases, ONLY 7 OF THEM TOOK PLACE IN THE UK. Out of these 7 cases, 3 involve NEEDLES/SYRINGES. 2 of these people INJECTED THEMSELVES and the other person was attacked by a syringe. That leaves 4 cases where there was blood to skin contact. 2 of them involve FIGHTING WHERE THERE WAS PROFUSE BLEEDING. That absolutely proves your point that the cuts have to be deep and requiring sutures. However, the 2 cases left fall in the fuzzy gray area.

1) Frequent skin contact with body secretions at time of chronic eczema, while caring for dying neighbour, later identified as having had AIDS.

2) Helped to remove heavily bloodied bodies from a railway tract.

The 1st one sort of makes sense because assuming she had weeping eczema, that is a portal into the body and he was around a person with AIDS, meaning that there was a high concentration of the virus in the secretions.

That leaves one mysterious case. #2 would have definitely remembered a deep cut on his hand.

[jimmy420]

I post on the medhelp forum and a spammer posted a long rant about an alleged contradiction one of the experts made.

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/HIV-Prevention/LIFE-THREATENING-CONTRADICTION/show/1115479

He sent me an email and at 1st I merely dismissed it without much thought but the more I read it, the more it is beginning to irk me. I have asked some of the other volunteers on the forum and I've gotten various different answers and nothing really concrete.

What do you feel about this situation? Was the patient having sex at risk? Is it true that simple contamination of a superficial wound not a reason for concern?

[RapidRod]

Please do not start a new thread every time you have another question or thought - regardless if you think your questions are related to each other or not. It helps us to help you when you keep all your thoughts or questions in one thread and it helps other readers to follow the discussion. Additional threads will be merged.

If you cannot find your thread, click on the "Show own posts" link in the left-hand column of any forum page, under your name.


RETURN TO YOUR ORIGINAL THREAD.

[jimmy420]

I don't understand what you want me to do. Should I post this in the 1st thread I made? How do I delete this thread then?

[Ann]

Jimmy,



I've merged your new thread into your original thread - where you should post all your additional thoughts or questions. It helps us to help you when you keep all your additional thoughts or questions in one thread.

If you need help finding your thread when you come here, click on the "Show own posts" link under your name in the left-hand column of any forum page.

Please also read through the Welcome Thread so you can familiarize yourself with our Forum Posting Guidelines. Thank you for your cooperation.





The purpose of this forum is to give risk assessments and testing advice. We're not here to explain stuff you find elsewhere on the internet. If you are worried about a situation which you fear put you at risk for hiv infection, then please, discuss that and stop all these speculative posts.

If you are saying you are the person (bcja) who shook a delivery man's hand, then you're worrying over nothing. You did not have a risk.

Ann