Posible contact with HIV positive blood on the surface of a hat...indeed a HAT.

[marquinho]

Hello boys and girls, first post here. Tried searching for a similar posible exposure, on the forum and on the net, but couldn't find any. For starters I'm from South America so please let me apologize for any misspelling, since english is not my first language.
And please however it may sound ludicrous, as the story goes , let me assure you ( as many other members on this forum I supose) it is eating me up. So here I go:
On January the 17 ( 2017) I had a rapid test donde after 3 month mark, at a local clinic in southamerica.(I only practice safe sex, but hey ! as we know, there are some chances with oral sex, so just in case I went to get tested) I was tested negative for HIV, Sifilis, Hepatitis C and B. Now this  is where my drama starts. It was summer down here ( south america ) so I went to get tested with a Straw Hat on. I'm no stranger to testing for STDs, I get tested once every year,I'm currently with a regular partner who also got tested ( and received a negative result for HIV ) not in the same clinic as me, but who later showed me the results of her test. While I was waiting for my results, I waited along side a nurse, doctor, who after picking me with a needle, asked me to wait inside the same room where the test was conducted. Now, before I went in, there were 4 different people who after getting their results, stayed outside while I was waiting to be called and chatted for a while. All of them casually informed me they were HIV positive. After that we said goodbye and as my name was called, I entered the testing room ( don't know if its the exact name for it ). So while I was waiting for the results, my hat fell on the floor of the clinic. I lift it up, putted on my head, and received my results. They were all conclusive as the nurse, doctor informed me, and were all negative. So up to that time, all was well. I left, had a 4 minute walk to a used bookshop and here is were it all began. While inside the bookshop I proceeded to read, look at some books, must've stayed there for 2 minutes tops, later went to a public toilet to wash my hands. The sink had water on it, and since I dind't want to get my hat wet, I placed my hat on my mouth, to hold it while washing my hands, 1 minute max. When removing the hat from my mouth, I noticed 2 things:
1) I had a cut inside my mouth, just below the lower lip ( not outside the mouth but inside it) which my hat went into contact with.
2) The hat had what appeared to be a strange tiny stain on it, I later noticed it was blood. And yes, to my recolection, the exact same place where the spot was located in the hat got into contact with my opening inside my mouth on the lower lip, which was fresh ( meaning a little bit of blood couldbe seen from it ).
I brushed my mouth, and tried to forget about it. Well I couldn't/ Went back the next day to the clinic, explained my experience, and they told me it was " imposible " to get in contact with any STDs that way, after they laughed a bit, told me as in some sort of a joke, that I would be the first person to get any STDs by " having any contact with a hat". So I tried to forget about it.
It begin to get a little tricky from then on. 1 month later devoloped a cold, sore throat, fever, night sweats, and let me assure you down in south america in February it is still summer. LAter on March , I suddenly developed 5 reddish tiny dots on my abdomen, five dots on the right side, and 5 dots on the left, which stayed for a more than a month. Still thinking to myself it was nothing, since I was assured by medical personal it was "simply notpossible to get STDs that way "
It went on. On 29/30 of may, I developed a strange pain in my arm pit, a later found out, as it was visible not only by touch but by sight! I had 1 swollen lymph nodeon my arm pit. Well I am beggining to get very concerned that the so called " imposible to get STDs this way, by contact with a straw hat " is not that imposible at all, since I still have night sweats, and still have a swollen lymph node on my arm pit.
So here I am, asking for any advice? is it posible that I am the first heterosexual man, who not only didn't cheat on his girlfriend, got tested with a negative result, but still became positive for HIV, or any other STDs by having direct contact with a straw hat?
I know it sounds imposible, but maybe in this case scenario, it may be true.

Thank You for any response I may get from any of you, and for you time to read this.

Cheers

[Ptrk3]

Well, the reason you could not find anything about a similar exposure that could be a viable threat for contracting the HIV lies in your own statement that "...it may  sound ludicrous."  It may sound ludicrous because it is ludicrous.

Read how HIV is contracted through this link and move on with your life:

https://www.poz.com/basics/hiv-basics/hiv-transmission-risks

If you're sick, see your healthcare provider.

[marquinho]

Hello Boys and Girls, not sure if I'm supposed to write my question on the same thread. Just in case I will write it here.

On January the 17th, 2018  I performed a HIV rapid test, Rapid test came  negative. I am a male, heterosexual, with one partner ( female ) who is also negative. I performed the rapid test in south america. Here's the tricky part. The lady who pricked my finger, was not wearing any gloves on, so to speak she was bare hand while pricking my finger (I was informed early on before taking the rapidtest that 18 people had done the test before me the same day). Felt a little uneasy since she didn't have gloves on but tried not paying any attention to it.Test came out negative.
1 minute or less after getting my negative results,  I used my pinky finger nail ( the exact hand in which the lady at the rapid test grabbed, touched, without gloves, while she performed the rapidtest) and scrapped with the fingernail, on my tongue to see the suposed thrush, or what I thought was thrush on my tongue. Realizing after that ( 10 minutes later ) that I hadn't washed my hands after receiving my test results, therefore after getting in contact with the health lady bare naked hands, I freaked, thinking if there was any blood inside my nail, I might have created a broken skin while scrapping my finger nail on my tongue.

Here's where it all begins again.
5 days later, developed a strange rash on armpit, 9 or 10 days after developed a fever that lasted a week, swollen glands on on groin area appeared, aswell as swollen glands on neck and armpit,  and after 2 weeks loss of appetite for about 3 days now ( and let me assure you, I'm a big guy, and I eat alot.).
So here I am, confused, angry, scared.
Did I put myself at risk? If there was blood present under my finger nail, and after scrapping the thrush, did I have direct contact with my mucous membrane? 
And I know symptoms are not reliable, I've read , re-read how HIV is transmitted, but since I scrapped with force, maybe I did have a direct contact between blood and broken skin on my tongue? Any comment will help. I will be performing again after 5 weeks another rapid test. I'll keep you guys posted.

Thank You.

I apologize if this is not the correct way of starting another question/thread.

[Jim Allen]

Please read this and the related links/threads before posting again,-Thank you
https://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=68441.0

HIV is not transmitted through touching and that she was not wearing gloves is not a risk to you. Blood under your fingernail, scraping of your tongue is also not how HIV is transmitted, to sum it up nothing you posted was a HIV concern.

HIV is far to fragile to transmit this way, blood on the fingers nails or not it simply was not a concern. Once it is exposed outside the human body to the environment and once hiv finds itself exposed outside the body, small changes in temperature, pH / moisture levels  damage the outer receptors that the virus uses to infect human cells and thus renders it unable to infect.

Hence nobody has ever been infected from sexual contact or day to day contact with fluids once they have been exposed outside the human body.

Biologically, four conditions need to be present for transmission to occur: The virus must be present in an infectious body fluid from the HIV positive person, it must be present at sufficient levels to cause infection. There must be an effective route of transmission, and it must reach susceptible cells in another person.

You did not meet any of the 4 conditions needed and all 4 must be present for even a theoretical concern. Move on with your life.


NOTE: If you post questions related to environmental concerns again, so in other-words HIV that has been exposed outside the human body first and thus a no-risk scenario it will lead to a ban.

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

Please Note.
As a member of the AM I Infected Forum you are required to only post in this one thread no matter how long between visits or the subject matter. You can find this thread by going to your profile and selecting show own post and it will take you here . 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. Any additional threads will be deleted.

[marquinho]

Ok, not sure if I should stick to this thread or start another one.
So I read and re-read on the forum, and on the internet about tainted blood issues, pre chewed food, toothbrush issues.

The situation is the following:
I am a male, heterosexual, one partner ( both negative until last month ). I have a friend who status is unknown. He basically confessed he never wore a condom (ever) while having intercourse with heterosexual women.
So on the 31 of July me and this male friend of mine, we were cooking and drinking ( sharing a bottle of beer ) and as I intend to freak-out ( I am already seeing a shrink about it) about possible HIV exposures, I asked for a glass after we started drinking the second bottle of beer ( immediately trying to cool my thoughts, and trying to use logic that hiv doesn't live long outside of the human body, and that the virus can't survive on surface of an object).
Later we started cooking spaghetti with tomato sauce. While he was preparing the tomato sauce I went to the toilet, and came back and tasted the sauce ( which was cooking on a hot pan ) after I tasted the hot tomato sauce he immediately told he had cut himself and apparently bled on the tomato sauce, maybe 1 min prior to my tasting it. So I just didn't care at the time, having searched on the forum, and on the net that even IF he had hiv, the virus would have died , dried, due to heating, air and probably because of all the chemicals of the tomato sauce, and due to my saliva and stomach acids, since as I have been told here and read on other internet pages HIV virus doesn;t live for a long time without contact with a host, and dies while exposed to air.
Later he tried the spaghettis, he didn't swallow the whole spaghetti, he tried half and dipped the other bitten half on the hot water again , and after a while so did I ( the spaghetti was on another pan cooking on hot water). We then ate, got drunk and went to sleep on separate beds.
The next day when I woke up, I went to brush my teeth with my toothbrush, after that went to watch TV, when my friend told he had used MY toothbrush prior to my using, he sad he had no toothbrush and was so tired and confused and used mine. Which to me was disgusting.

So concerning tainted blood on the sauce, I read hiv virus would not ever be able to live through the heating of the pan, saliva, stomach acids, air etc...

The chewing of the spaghetti, does that fall into the category of prechewing?
which I have read that HIV can be spread in that manner

And the toothbrush I have searched on this forums and read that the amount of blood needed to be present must be alot for us even to consider such an exposure.

Basically two weeks after that I have been having extreme night sweats, and I tried sleeping with the windows open ( its winter where I'm from ) and yesterday it went away, but yesterday ( 20 days after all these incidents ) developed mild fever and one swollen gland on armpit.

I am being paranoid, are my thoughts, anxiety fear, getting the best out of me? should I get tested? have I had any kind of exposure? I know not what to think anymore. Maybe in some rare insane case tainted blood is a way of being exposed to hiv? Does eating spaghetti on a hot pan with boiling water after my friend tried some and dipped the other chewed half fall into the category of pre-chewing? Should I just  get a rapid test in 10 days from now?
I know I have been told to read how HIV is spread, which I did, I know I have been warned by the mod about insisting on asking questions about hiv outside of the body exposure. But I am having mix thought about the pre chewing and tainted blood.



Cheers

[Jim Allen]

Please read this and the related links/threads before posting again,-Thank you
https://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=68441.0

Once it is exposed outside the human body to the environment and once hiv finds itself exposed outside the body, small changes in temperature, pH / moisture levels  damage the outer receptors that the virus uses to infect human cells and thus renders it unable to infect.

Hence nobody has ever been infected from sexual contact or day to day contact with fluids once they have been exposed outside the human body.

Biologically, four conditions need to be present for transmission to occur: The virus must be present in an infectious body fluid from the HIV positive person, it must be present at sufficient levels to cause infection. There must be an effective route of transmission, and it must reach susceptible cells in another person.

You did not meet any of the 4 conditions needed and all 4 must be present for even a theoretical concern. Move on with your life.


NOTE: If you post questions related to environmental concerns again, so in other-words HIV that has been exposed outside the human body first and thus a no-risk scenario it will lead to a ban.

As promised a ban, I say this from a point of kindness as you just need to move on now and stop focusing/stressing about HIV.

Day to day contact and eating food are not HIV concerns, your fears are truly without any foundation in reality, if you continue to have such thoughts please seek face to face support with a therapists or other mental health professional before the issue escalates

If you do ever contract HIV its simply not from what you are posting here and, so ill remind you to use condoms for any intercourse, no exceptions!

Jim

Anyone who continues to post excessively, questioning a conclusive negative result or no-risk situation, will be subject to a four week Time Out (a temporary ban from the Forums). If you continue to post excessively after one Time Out, you may be given a second Time Out which will last eight weeks. There is no third Time Out - it is a permanent ban. The purpose of a Time Out is to encourage you to seek the face-to-face help we cannot provide on this forum.

[Jim Allen]

( I am already seeing a shrink about it)

Exactly, now keep seeing the shrink and, turn off the internet, stop looking for an issue you don't have, stop googling insane rubbish online that will just make you even more paranoid.

I wish you well but we can not assist you in this setting with your therapy.

Jim