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QUESTION: Hi, I recently gave a man a manicure at beauty school, and am worried he may have been infected with HIV. During the manicure, I pricked him with my implement, and he bleed under his nail. I continued on with the manicure and afterward put the implement in a disinfectant for 5 min. I pulled out the implement from the disinfectant and poked myself as well. Is it possible that I have contracted HIV from this?
ANSWER: Hello Cara,
Let us take few points from your question and proceed then:
1. You are not sure whether the man is HIV positive or not, but you're worried that he might be
2. He bleed under his nail
If you didn't have any open bleeding wounds which might have been in direct contact with his bleeding, there is no possibility of HIV transmission. However, if you had a open sore/bleeding wound, and had been in direct contact with his blood, there runs a risk ... else, there's nothing to worry about.
Stay well and take care of yourself.
Sincere regards,
Gorkey
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: I am pretty sure that I didn't have any wounds on my hands at the time that got into direct contact with his wound. I might have had a scab or two on the top of my hand from a week earlier but that is all. Other than the prick from the implement, that's it. HIV wouldn't have lasted that long on the implement?
Dear Cara,
HIV must get into your bloodstream in order to infect you. If it doesn't get into the bloodstream, you will not get the infection. SMALL scabs prevents HIV from entering bloodstream. Thus, there is no scientific evidences that HIV transmits through scabs. Therefore, in your case, no need to worry about at all.
Best regards,
Gorkey
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Gorkey Gourab
Expertise
Social and behavioral issues related to HIV transmission, sexually transmitted infections, Human Rights issues, rights of marginalized populations, gender and sexuality, research design and analysis related social & behavioral issues, , computer assisted qualitative data analysis and data management (using ATLAS.ti, ANTHROPAC, NVivo 8)
Experience
Specialized in Medical Anthropology. Working on Social and behavioral studies related to HIV transmission as well as Human Rights issues. Specialization in gender, sexuality, masculinity, behavioral studies related to HIV transmission. Qualitative research, programmatic and M&E experience with MSM, hijra (TG), indigenous groups, female sex workers for more than 7 years.
Organizations
International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) as Manager - M&E (Qualitative) with Center for HIV and AIDS
Publications
International peer-reviewed journals & technical papers: (1) Khan, S. I., Hussain, M. I., Parveen, S., Bhuiyan, M. I., Gourab, G., & Bhuiya, A. (2009). Living on the extreme margin: Social exclusion of the hijra in Bangladesh. Journal of health, population and nutrition. (2) Khan, S. I., Hussain, M. I., Gourab, G., Parveen, S., Bhuiyan, M. I., & Sikder, J. (2008). Not to stigmatize but to humanize sexual lives of the transgender (hijra): condom chat in the AIDS era. Journal of LGBT Health Research (Special issue: issues on male sexual behaviors and HIV risk in South Asia). Working papers: (1) Khan, S. I., Gourab, G., Ahmed, T., Sarker, G. F., Chowdhury, F. K., Ghosh, S., et al. (2009). Understanding the operational dynamics and possible HIV interventions for residence-based female sex workers in two divisional cities in Bangladesh. Dhaka, Bangladesh: NASP, Save the Children USA and icddr,b. Presentations in scientific meetings and conferences: (1) Khan, S. I., Hussain, M. I., Gourab, G. & Azim, T. (2011, 16 March 2011). Use of a new approach to count and access diverse groups of hijra for scaling up HIV-preventions services in Bangladesh. Poster presented at the 13th Annual Scientific Conference (ASCON XIII), Dhaka. (2) Khan, S. I., Pasa, K., Gourab, G., & Islam, A. (2007). Indigenous populations of Bangladesh: Living with risks and vulnerabilities to STIs/HIV. 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP). Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Education/Credentials
MSS (Anthropology), University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh
Awards and Honors
The Vanderbilt-UAB Fogarty International Center AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP)Scholarship for the training on HIV-AIDS related qualitative data analysis and manuscript writing (Center for Global Health, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA)
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