[Question #1007] car accident

98 months ago

i witnessed a car accident one day, i went near , i saw blood huge amount of blood on the road .suddenly a bike (motorcycle) came in high speed, some amount of blood splashed to eyes and mouth. do this pose a hiv risk?

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

98 months ago

Welcome to the forum. Thanks for your question.

In theory, this could be a small risk for HIV, more from the eye than mouth contact. However, to my knowledge it has never happened. That is, I am unaware of any reports of anyone acquiring HIV due to exposure to blood following an accident or injury outside a hospital, or without known HIV infection in the bleeding person. So if there is any risk, it is extremely small. I would also ask how certain you are that blood contacted your eyes or mouth; or how diluted it might have been, e.g. if it had been raining and there were puddles containing blood.

The risk can also be judged somewhat by where this happened. If you're in North America or western Europe, the statistical chance a random person has HIV is around 1 chance in a thousand; lower if the injured person was a child or a woman, somewhat higher if an unmarried adult male. (I'm assuming you have no way to know about more specific risks, such as whether the person was an injection drug user, gay man, etc.) If in sub-Saharan Africa, there could be a 10-20% chance the person was infected. In the Middle East (looking at your username), HIV is extremely rare and for sure there would be no reason for worry.

All things considered, probably there is no risk at all. But if you remain concerned, you could contact a local HIV expert (e.g. an infectious diseases specialist or the local health department), who might better judge the chance the injured person had HIV; and, if you definitely had substantial blood contact with your eyes or mouth, could advise you on possible HIV testing.

I hope this has been helpful. Best wishes-- HHH, MD

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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

98 months ago

Also, when did this happen? If more than 4 weeks ago, you could have an HIV blood test (a 4th generation or "duo" test for both HIV antigen and antibody). A negative result would prove for sure you were not infected. I'm not recommending testing, just raising as something you can consider if a negative test result would be more reassuring than my analysis based on probability and statitistics.

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98 months ago

Sir, it was small.amount of blood I heard hiv dies upon exposure to oxygen
I1) how much amount of blood needed to acquire hiv from.environment
2) if blood.mixes with water, I mean accident in.rainy day , will hiv get diluted completely?no risk??

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

98 months ago

I would encourage you to ignore the biological factors, including HIV survival time, effects of dilution, and the amount of blood exposure required for infection. The important fact is that such transmissions have not occurred, and obviously it is reasonable to suspect that in the 30+ years of the worldwide HIV pandemic, with millions of infected persons, many other people have been exposed in the same way you were -- and apparently nobody was infected. You aren't going to be the first!

Nevertheless, here is what is known about these things (which isn't very much). HIV indeed is rapidly inactivated in the environment, although I don't know the role of oxygen per se. However, HIV probably remains infectious until blood dries. Dilution in water probably also inactivates HIV, but how rapidly isn't known; and of course the dilution factor depends on the amounts of blood and the amount of water involved. The amount required to get infected in this situation is completely unknown; because such transmissions have never happened, no research on this has been done and probably will never be. Fears like yours are rare, so most experts would agree that this sort of research isn't needed.

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98 months ago

Thank you sir.. for time and reply it was very helpful .advise from expert like you is so much helpful..
I am scared now.because of hiv

1) sir , last week I was just sitting in the park ..some people were playing football near to me, after some time I felt some liquid fell into my eyes and probably to my mouth . I panicked because I thought, people who were playing might have actively bleeding wound, and their blood would have come in contact with my eyes and mouth.is it hiv risk??

Finally ..I sincerely thank you for all help and advises you provided .may god bless u

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

98 months ago

This also carries no risk at all for HIV. Also, I now don't believe your initial story that you felt liquid contact your eyes and mouth; your anxieties are making you imagine it. Nobody ever gets HIV without unsafe sex or sharing drug injection equipment. You should know that; everyone else does.

Your fears of HIV are abnormal. Irrational fear of contamination (with HIV or other germs) can be an early sign of very serious mental health disability. For an excellent example, rent and watch "The Aviator", about the entrepreneur Howard Hughes. (It's an excellent movie, by the way.) Ask your doctor about referral for professional mental health counseling. I suggest it from compassion, not criticism.

Please do not start a new thread with these questions or anything like them. Repetative anxiety-driven questions are not permitted, and another would be deleted without reply and without refund of the testing fee.

Best wishes and thanks for the thanks about our services. Good luck.

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