Expert: Terry B - 4/6/2009

Question
Dear expert:

Thank you so much for your great help in this website.

First of all, please forgive my poor English, since I am not a native speaker.

I went to a clinic for a HIV test yesterday and got a Negative result today, which is of course a good result for me. However, what I am worrying about is as follows:

When the nurse took blood from me, she did not wear any medical glove, and she got some iodine from a bottle and then put the iodine onto the skin of my left arm and daubed it on my skin with her naked finger. Then, she took blood from me with a syringe, which is maybe a one-use-only syringe.

Now I am worrying about getting some blood on my needle wound from the naked finger of the nurse and thus getting HIV infected, since if the nurse never wore gloves during her medical operations to the AIDS patients or potential patients, she might be infected when she got a wound on her finger. The sanitation condition in this clinic looks just ok but not very good (of course, the entire sanitation condition in hospitals and clinics in our country is worse than those developed countries like United States).

My question is that: let’s consider a case (might be more serious than my actual case) in which the nurse use her naked finger with a wound covered by blood to put the iodine on my skin and daub it, and then she penetrates my skin with the syringe and takes the blood out, can I get HIV infected on my tiny needle wound from her blood on my skin? although she gets my blood “out” from me on the needle wound but not put something “into” the wound.

Maybe the above question is stupid for someone, but it is extremely important to me and I am really very very worried about it. So can you please consider the worst case and answer the question? Thank you very much!!

Sincerely yours,

Amber


Answer
Dear Amber:

Peace and all good things to you.  The question isn't stupid, it (and variations) are asked often.  What is needed is better information, and I am happy to make the link for you.

There is a site I refer most people brave enough to ask questions in what isn't their native tongue:  www.avert.org  - which has reliable (peer-reviewed but understandable) HIV/AIDS information in many languages.  Another site, www.unaids.org has more languages but can be difficult to navigate - while it has some of the best information world-wide, it also has so MUCH information that finding what you need can be difficult.

Please go to these sites and read more about HIV/AIDS - it should answer your above question and even more that you didn't know you had.

Lastly, to be responsive to your inquiry, HIV is transmitted by blood, vaginal secretions, semen, and, in some cases, breast milk.  The amount present increases the risk, as does the duration of exposure, and many other factors about which you'll read when you go to the above sites.

The use of gloves when a person might come into contact with blood is expected, but her using her finger to spread the iodine is not uncommon in areas where gloves are few and very valuable for cases where blood is SURE to be present.  Without addressing your theoretical case, let me assure you that it seems as though you are at no risk from what you describe.

I hope this helps, thanks for asking, and please read more and join us in spreading good information about this disease.

Best to you and yours,

Terry