I’ve been curious about this for quite some time about the risk of acquiring Hep C or HIV from inanimate objects in a public bathroom or just in public in general like a urinal handle. Once or twice recently I used the urinal at my job and I used my bare hand to flush with the urinal handle. I always wash my hands after the bathroom, but sometimes I honestly can’t remember if I did or not. The other day I had a small open cut/wound on the temple of my face. If hypothetically speaking that I touched that urinal handle to flush and forgot to wash my hands and then almost immediately touch my open wound with my hands, could that transfer Hep C or even HIV if say there was some small amount of blood infected with Hep C or HIV on the urinal handle and then I transferred the blood to my open cut/wound from my hands and fingers? Is that possibile to transfer those disease from your own hands from a public bathroom setting or just in the environment in general? By reading on here, I have seen that HIV is not able to infect and dies once exposed to air and the environment, but could it still spread from your own hands to open wound along with Hep C? 

I hope this doesn’t sound silly, I’m genuinely curious and I’ve definitely learned a lot recently from being on here, but there are still a couple of things that have been sparking my curiosity and need to know for future reference so I don’t have to worry. I am working on getting some help in the near future because I have developed a contamination fear/ocd recently but I’ve been really trying to break the cycle. By learning from experts like you guys truly helps with that a lot. Thanks for really being patient with me. 

-Nick 

STIs including HIV are not transmitted through contact with inanimate objects which might be contaminated with blood or secretions from an infected person.  The presence of scrapes or open wounds does not change this although there is a theoretical concern about IMMEDIATE contamination of a fresh would with infected material.  To my knowledge such occasions are extraordinarily rare (neither of us has ever seen nor heard of such a means of infection.  The same is true for Hepatitis C, which is not an STI except for persons practicing receptive rectal intercourse.

Transfer of any STI, including HIV, as well as hepatitis C on a person's hands to cause infection at an infected would or scrape is unheard of.  

I would not worry in the least about acquistion of any STI or hepatitis through contact with inanimate objects.  EWH 

Please don’t worry.  EWH

Last thing is that I had went to the urgent care about 9 days ago to get my ears cleaned out since it was backed up with earwax. I did something dumb and used Q tips to remove earwax and it just pushed it further into my ears. They did an ear irrigation which they used warm water with solution in a spray bottle type of form with a pointed plastic tip at the end to go into my ear. The lady did it for about 10-15 minutes on my left ear and it ended up bleeding a little bit from the inside of my ear from the pressure or wax I’m assuming. Would that possibly be a risk as well if say hypothetically the tip that she used to go into my ear wasn’t sterilized properly? The blood could be seen mixed with the water and wax into the container where the water drained into. Thank you. 

Similarly, no risk from having your ear irrigated.

Please don’t worry.  This completes this thread.  Closing it shortly.  Take care.  Please don’t worry.  EWH