AboutTerry B Expertise Help in assessing personal and professional risk of HIV transmission; tips in teaching about HIV/AIDS; cultural competency for teaching about HIV/AIDS in Catholic settings; considerations in US and overseas HIV/AIDS programs and education for health and other professionals. Specific questions about treatment should be referred to your health provider; opinions and information offered are not meant to replace medical advice
Experience Seven years with academic medical center and national AIDS education and training center, seven subsequent years with focus on international HIV/AIDS in East and South Africa. Former clinician, bioethics preceptor at an academic medical center and presenter in wide range of fora including international AIDS conference.
Organizations Disabled American Veterans
American Public Health Association
MENSA
AA
Publications Human Variety, EC Sociological Society
Proceedings of the International AIDS Conference, Durban, South Africa
"HIV and Primary Care"
Education/Credentials BS Psychology
MPH Master of Public Health
PhD studies underway
Awards and Honors Naval School of Health Sciences, Hospital Corps with Highest Honors, Neuropsychiatry with Honors and High Distinction
Question I went to have blood drawn the other day and as the lab tech put the turnacit on my arm I noticed blood on it from someone else. I know it was not mine!!!!!
I told the lab tech about the blood, however what she did next shocked me! She took the turnacit and rubbed the gloves she was wearing all in the blood! She did not change her gloves! She rubbed the gloves on my arms trying to find a vein and then poked me to get my blood drawn. I am worried that poke might have injected the blood from who knows who into me!
Also, I have a baby who touched my arm about 10 minutes after this happened and then put her fingers in her mouth. Could she have eaten germs from blood? I am so worried! I feel like I have spread blood onto everything my arm touched.
Another thing that has bothered me is that she was touching my arm after rubbing foreign blood and when I got home it was pouring rain so my arm dripped water onto my floor. I took a paper towel and dried my arm, however pieces of the paper towel rolled off my arm and into the floor! I picked them up but felt as if I had transferred the germs from the blood onto the paper towel which fell on my floor. I did not disinfect anything. I am worried maybe I should have. My baby crawls on the floor. Have I contaminated the floor with germs from the blood?
One more thing, when I went to take a shower the water off my arm that the lab tech touched with the contaminated gloves, dripped all over my shampoo bottle. Water rolls off of it into the shower floor, so does that mean that when I step into the water that I'm spreading germs from the blood onto my floor after I get out? Would touching the shampoo bottle infect us since the water fell onto the bottle off my arm she was touching after rubbing someones blood?
I hope this is not confusing but I am worried that I have contaminated everything my arm come in contact with. Should I have disinfected these things? Is it ok that my baby crawls on the floor? AHHHHHH! I have not ever been exposed this way to anyones blood before and am afraid I did not take the proper precautions before letting my baby touch me.
Sorry so long,hope u understand what happened. Please advise me so I can set my mind at ease. Do I need to be tested for HIV and hepatitis since she was rubbing foreign blood then touching my arm where she then poked me with the needle?
When she started touching me I asked her "don't u need to change your gloves" and she said no,but I am still so uneasy!
next time something like that happens I'll make them change their gloves!
PLEASE HELP ME!!!
Have I exposed my family?????
Is it necessary to clean everything that had contact with where she touched me?
Answer Dear Marie:
Peace. HIV isn't easily transmitted. The virus is contained in blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and in the case of nursing mothers, breast milk. Direct exposure to the fluids containing the virus is necessary for infection, and how often you are exposed, how much fluid to which you are exposed, the amount of virus in the fluid, the condition of the skin or mucous membrane on which the exposure occurs - all factor into whether the risk is low or high.
1) Good hygiene and infection control would suggest that anything that is blood-smeared be disposed of properly. To ask someone to please wipe something off or change it is reasonable.
2) Your chances of being infected with HIV from what you describe is almost none. Please go to www.thebody.com to read more about HIV transmission - it will give you some peace of mind to know more.
3) Your child and family are not at risk even had you been infected, please see the above discussion of fluids for evaluating risk.
4) To have some perspective, be aware that at least one study shows that the sexual partners of persons living with HIV over a five year period did not contract HIV when they used a condom every time they had sexual relations. If I remember the numbers, this represented 5000 acts of intercourse. No transmissions. Again, HIV is not easy to transmit, and latex is an effective barrier.
Be at peace, get informed, and be of service to your community by sharing what you know.
