Licking blood

[lopezmaria58]

Hey everyone:

I am desperate to understand my HIV risk. I licked fresh HIV+ blood amongst chocolate drizzle immediately after it was prepared. No obvious cuts or wounds in my mouth, but the blood-syrup mixture stayed in my mouth for some time before I realized there was blood. The blood was on the inside lid of an iced coffee drink. The HIV+ employee appeared to bleed on the lid immediately before closing it. The chocolate then transferred to the lid, overtop the fresh blood, and I licked it pretty good before noticing the red stuff, which was later confirmed to be HIV+ blood. The time between the employee bleeding and my licking was approximately 5 minutes.

I am very anxious and will get tested, but would like some honest insight into my exposure.

[Jim Allen]

Hi

You had no risk whatsoever.

No reason to test, stress or worry about this incident.

Here's what you need to know in order to avoid hiv infection:
Use condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, correctly and consistently, every time, no exceptions.

Keep in mind that some sexual practices which may be described as ‘safe’ in terms of HIV transmission might still pose a risk for transmission of other STI's, so please do get fully tested regularly and at least yearly for all STI's including but not limited to HIV and test more frequently if unprotected intercourse occurs

Also note that it is possible to have an STI and show no signs or symptoms and the only way of knowing is by testing.

More information on HIV Basics, PEP, TaSP and Transmission can be found through the links in my signature to our POZ pages, this includes information on HIV Testing

Kind regards

Jim

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[lopezmaria58]

Merry Christmas and thank you for your promo reply. Sorry for for lingering, if you have time, I have 2 follow up questions: (1) Do you know if there have been any reports of HIV infection via blood in mouth? (2) Is there a theoretical basis for believing that HIV can be absorbed through the mucus membrane lining the mouth? Thanks again!

[Jim Allen]

No.

Look you had no risk, all you have is an irrational fear and worsened by the fact that someone for some bizarre reason gave you PEP instead of providing you with accurate information on why you should not be concerned and face to face counselling to move on.

I know you did not mention the PEP here but its a small world. Ill be honest I wish ER's and front line care staff would not give PEP to people who have irrational fears about HIV when they should have none as it just fuels the fear and creates further stigma.

HIV needs to be present for it to be a risk and than to transmit it needs an effective route, in sufficient amounts and it must also reach cells which are susceptible to infection. All 4 conditions must be met and nothing you mentioned meets the conditions needed for infection from HIV. 

Also HIV is incredibly fragile and difficult to transmit so much so that well nobody has been infected by it outside the human body through contact not even from an object in this case the cup to the mouth. We know back to basics that HIV has an outer protein/receptors that are needed to remain infectious and they corrodes in contact with air, so it can no longer infect. Also the small changes in temperature, pH / moisture levels would "neutralize" it.

In short whatever you licked even if it even contained HIV the HIV simply would not have been infectious.  Hence in the situation you described, blood on the cup and than licking it, this simply would not be a risk to you.

Jim

[lopezmaria58]

Just want to thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I deeply appreciate it. I'll be honest, I know very little about HIV and I don't feel good about unintentionally stigmatizing it. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

[Jim Allen]

You're welcome.

Now stop googling and posting online, most people and sites are near hysterical including unfortunately some doctors. Fear brings the worst out in people and when it comes to HIV this is certainly the case. Now if you google long enough you ill find people who have the weirdest "what if" scenarios who think E.T are to blame and that HIV gives you magical powers, neither is true.

Day to day interaction like preparing your food, cleaning, working with you in the work place and causal contact like hugging, shaking hands, sharing toilets, sharing dishes, kissing, sharing a meal or cutlery with a person living with HIV is simply no risk to you whatsoever.

Questioning the HIV status of the employee (directly or indirectly) and finding out his/her HIV status even though you had no exposure and no right or need to know as you simply had no risk has just lead to the further stigmatization and damage to the employee.

Jim