POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: worrier2012 on September 25, 2012, 10:32:51 am
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I just had my hiv rapid fingerstick test which was nagtive.
However I did not see the health provider open the kit in front of me.
So, I am worrying that the needle she used to stick my finger was not new. Was it possible the needle had been used to stick other people before me? Will this put me in another hiv risk? If the needle has fresh hiv positive blood on it, would my test result be positive or negtive?
Should I get another test after three month?
I cannot think more, I am so worried about it. I cannot live with such anxiety. Help me please!!! Thank you! .
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worrier,
You are NOT going to become infected from hiv testing.
The only time you need to worry about needles is if you're sharing them with other people for the purpose of injecting street drugs.
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.
WHILE YOU DO NOT NEED TO TEST SPECIFICALLY OVER TESTING, 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. Some of the other STIs can be present with no obvious symptoms, so the only way to know for sure is to test.
Use condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, correctly and consistently, and you will avoid hiv infection. It really is that simple!
Ann
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Thank you so much for your reply. Sorry to keep asking questions, becuase I cannot talk this with my family and I am so stressful. I supposed to feel relax because I got a negtive result, but I just cannot.
Even the fingerstick needle was not opened in fornt of me, it would still be new and not used. I think this is my mental problem and it was not real happend, and I do not need take another test after three month, am I right? Thank you.
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Worrier,
It doesn't matter if it wasn't opened in front of you. Places that test for hiv are not in the business of transmitting hiv and even if they were, re-using test lancets would not be an effective way to go about it, because it wouldn't work. Transmission doesn't happen that way.
You don't need to test again in three months. Unless you were testing over unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse, you didn't need to test in the first place, unless you're a sexually active adult and it was just a routine check up.
You do NOT have hiv and you do NOT need further testing at this time.
Ann
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Hi Ann
Thank you, again. Would you mind to explain why HIV does not trans by re-using the fingerstick needle? I decide to move on and forget about it. Thank you.
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Hi Ann
Thank you, again. Would you mind to explain why HIV does not trans by re-using the fingerstick needle? I decide to move on and forget about it. Thank you.
Well to start with, lancet needles are not meant to be re-used. They are delicate, and the first (and only use) will dull the needle. Attempting to re-use it would likely be agonizing, and not worth any perceived cost saving.
Also, a lancet does not push anything into your body. It draws blood, usually into a vacuum tube. Even if, by some chance, your clinic was run out of the back of a truck and they managed to USE a lancet twice (likely impossible, by the way, since A) the needle would have been dulled and B) any residual blood in the apparatus would have clotted, the lancet would not be putting blood INTO your body.
Which is how IV drug users can contract HIV - by IMMEDIATELY sharing injecting drug needles and works, where they push the plunger IN to deliver the drugs to the bloodstream. You cannot accomplish this with a lancet.
So no, no one in the history of the pandemic has gotten HIV from an HIV testing clinic.