POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: allank on March 26, 2013, 02:28:43 pm
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Hello,
I hope the experts can help me out. I went to get a routine HIV test done at a local clinic while I was in Kenya. The syringe was new, however after drawing the blood the nurse put a cotton ball on my injected area to cover the blood....I noticed blood on top of the cotton ball. I panicked and quickly asked if i can get another cotton ball from the tray. She said yes and I quickly removed the first cotton ball with the blood on top and grabbed another one and applied it to my injected area. Shortly after she put a band aid on it and I walked to the reception to pay for the test. Upon walking home I looked at my band aid and it was red on top of the band aid. Not the outer top part that is exposed to the air, but on the inner top part of the band aid. This to me was completely weird as blood shouldn't be there but only on the cotton ball directly covering the injected part.
Now I'm freaking out and believing this was someone else's blood....the physics don't make sense.
If it was someone else's HIV + blood, and put on my injected wound in the form of the fresh HIV + blood on the cotton ball and fresh HIV + blood on the inside of the band aid then am I at risk of contracting HIV?
I would really appreciate if the experts could answer as soon as possible. Do I need to test over this incident. I am well educated in regards to HIV vectors and know that one cannot contract HIV from environmental surfaces. However this situation seems to be different as it's seems blood to blood.
I feel like when I took the first cotton ball out, there was already blood on top from someone there previous. So when i took it off and put the second cotton ball on, I did not see the top as i was applying pressure to the injected site with my index finger. The nurse then put a band aid on top of the second cotton ball and I removed my index finger. I did not bleed up the band aid, as the second cotton ball contained the bleeding. But when i looked at the band aid some 5 minutes later, I see blood on the top inside part of the band aid. So when I removed the band aid altogether on my walk, I clearly saw that blood was contained on the inside of the cotton ball, and it did not bleed out on the band aid or on the other side (top part) of the cotton ball. I feel like I may have touched the blood on the top part of the first cotton ball and when I reached to grab a second one, I transferred that blood and that is how blood remained on the top part of the second cotton ball, and on top of my injected wound.
I don't know if I'm making sense, but do you understand the above?
Any comments and assessments are greatly appreciated.
Thank you
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Hi Allank . I have read your post very carefully and I can safely say that you DID NOT have a risk and you do not need to test over this incident .
HIV is a fragile virus and is rendered unable to infect within seconds of leaving the confines of the human body . Even if the cotton ball were to be applied to your injection site within seconds it still would not infect you with HIV , that isn't the way HIV is contracted . HIV isn't spread by blood from counter tops and surfaces so you can relax and put this out of your mind .
If you use condoms for vaginal and anal sex and use them correctly you will avoid exposure to HIV .
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Thank you so much Jeff for your assessment. I feel so relieved. Can any of the other experts give their input as well...Jkin, Ann, Andy??
Thanks again Jeff, I really appreciate your time.
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How many votes do you need? You didn't have a risk for transmitting viable HIV. It's a fragile virus and doesn't get passed in a transmissable form through the events in your incident.
Let it go and get on with your life. Really.