Blood-filled month

[dave.chege]

Hello everyone,

I am so glad I came across this site.  This no nonsense and real facts site is a wonderful tool for all of us to have.  Thank you all for making this site possible and to all the volunteers thank you.  I have searched the archives in regards to my incidences, but mine I feel is a bit different and also I would like to start my first and hopefully my last topic.

I have had three incidences that have happened within the last month, and I am petrified over them.

The First One:  I was in a ‘slum’ area in the outskirts of town.  I walked into a shop to buy some cigarettes and I had to wait in line.  There was a person standing behind me and well he looked like he was on something because he couldn’t stand straight and he was mumbling and grunting.  Anyway I turned around and looked at him a couple of times because I thought he was talking to me.  I looked at him a third time and saw that he was having a nosebleed, and even bleeding from the mouth (it could have been the blood from his nose trickling into and onto his mouth but I am not sure).  Anyways I had a handkerchief and so I gave it to him right away.  He took it from me, but as he went to tilt his head to stop the nosebleed, he was swaying to the right and was about to fall down.  Instinctively I grabbed him so he wouldn’t fall on the floor, and I held him so he could control his bleed.  But as I was holding him, blood from his nose and mouth started falling on my face.  Specifically 5 to 6 drops of his blood fell on my lips, entire mouth, and 3 to 4 drops of blood fell on my nose.  I did not know what to do at that exact moment, so I just continued holding him until he got his bleeding under control.  When he was ok, I let go of him and quickly licked my lips and mouth with my tongue and swallowed his blood (I had heard saliva renders the virus inactive and so does stomach acids so that is why I licked my lips and my whole general mouth area and swallowed his blood).  Did I do the right thing here by doing that??  I also used my T-shirt to wipe away his blood from my nose.  This incident has really petrified me because just before stopping to buy cigarettes I was biting my lips and chewing and ripping off the dry skin on my lips....and basically my lips bled in three different spots maybe a couple of minutes before I entered the store.  So I am worried about these fresh cuts I made on my lips that bled by biting off the dry skin (I do have severely chapped lips), and these fresh cuts on my lips would allow for entryway for the HIV virus?  And his blood landing on my broken cut lips and mouth would give this a perfect opportunity here for the virus to enter me.  I do not know if this guy was HIV +, but I have been educated to think that everyone is potentially HIV+ therefore you should protect yourself at all times i.e. condoms.
Please could you tell me if I may have been exposed to the HIV virus?  Do I need to test at the 3-month mark?  Should I let this go or get tested?
Please experts--?Andy, Jkin, Ann, Rapid, and Matty the Damned (and all other experts) please give me your assessment on my risk.




The Second One:

I visited a hostel and spent two days there.  On one of the days I woke up in the morning and went for a shower.  It is a communal shower.  When I finished I wiped myself down and went to change in my room and then came back to use the body cream to put on my hands and face.  While walking to the shower area, some guy came running out of the shower room clutching his hands while he passed me.  I thought nothing of it and just continued on to the shower room. I got into the shower room and went straight for the cream bottle.  I did not notice anything out of the ordinary.  I grabbed and applied the cream to my hands and started rubbing the cream into my face, arms, and hands.  Something felt weird here because the cream felt more liquidly than normal.  And that’s when I noticed the back of the cream bottle was covered in red blood.  I looked at my hands and face in the mirror and saw that I have been rubbing this blood along with the cream all over my face, hands, and arms.  My face was reddish (mixed in with the cream). I do not know why I didn’t notice the feeling of touching blood when I grabbed the cream bottle.  I guess the steam mixed with the other peoples wet hands touching the cream over the course of the morning made me think that the cream bottle was wet with water.  I freaked out and wiped myself down with a towel.  I quickly got out of the shower room and went about my day trying to forget the experience of the morning.  I was going to speak to the guy who got ran out of the shower room that evening, so as to relax my mind.  I could not speak to him in the morning after the incident because he had gone to the emergency room.  That evening the person had left the hostel before I could have a conversation with him.  But apparently he got cut with 2 pieces of broken glass near the trashcan and he required stitches.
I am worried because by rubbing his blood all over my face, I could have contracted the HIV virus.  I know that the experts say you cannot get HIV from environmental surfaces, but that is if the blood has been exposed to air for some minutes.  The blood on the cream bottle was exposed to air for maybe 25 seconds or less before I used it on my face, so I am thinking that the virus at that point is not completely inactive and would constitute ‘in that same minute or second’ exposure.

Please anyone could you tell me if I’m at risk here for acquiring the HIV virus with this incident?

The Third One:

I went to drycleaners to pick up a suit that I had dropped off.  I paid the lady at the counter and she started to give me change.  On one of the cash notes she gave, there was fresh wet blood present.  I touched the blood covered note (the blood got on my left hand left index and middle finger) and I quickly gave it back to the lady to give me another note.  While she was searching for another note to give me, I brushed my left hand left index and middle finger with my left hand thumb (same hand; as I was holding the dry-cleaned suit with my right hand) to get rid of the blood that got on those fingers.  She gave me a replacement note quickly and I walked out of the drycleaners.  While walking out I had an itch in my eye.  Literally 10 seconds had passed when I walked out the drycleaners and without thinking I used the same hand and at the exact spots where the blood was on my fingers, to wipe away at my itch in my eye (because my right hand was holding the dry-cleaned suit).  I realized how stupid I was and when I got to the car I put my dry-cleaned suit in the back seat and closely looked at my left hand and my eye in the rear view mirror.  And there was some blood streaks present on my thumb and index finger and a minute blood streak under my eyelash.  I don’t know what to make of this, but I am guessing that the blood was not exposed to air for a long time at all.

In my entire life I have never had a single thing happened to me (touch wood) regarding blood exposure.  Now within a span of 1 month I’ve had three major exposures that I feel would constitute real risks in regards to acquiring the HIV virus.

Once again please could you tell me if I may have been exposed to the HIV virus with these 3 incidences?  Do I need to test at the 3-month mark?  Should I let these incidences go or get tested?
Please experts--?Andy, Jkin, Ann, Rapid, and Matty the Damned  (and all other experts) please give me your assessment on my risks.


Thank you and God Bless

Dave

[Andy Velez]

Since you are no-nonsense person I will direct you to our lesson on Transmission where you can read the basics about how HIV is and is not transmitted. There's a link to that lesson in the welcome thread which opens this section.

HIV is a fragile virus and not easily transmitted. None of the incidents you have described at length are in any way a risk for transmission. There's no need for testing nor for further concern on your part.

Good luck to you.