Unfortunately, it seems like I developed HIV OCD since my last question since, right when I was able to relax due to having been conclusively tested, I stepped in a sharp object while walking barefoot in my apartment, and now I am having trouble shaking the characteristic doubt. I will return to my (previously successful) therapeutic approach but would like to confirm the lack of risk:

1) I stepped in something sharp in my apartment. This resulted in bleeding and there is now an oblong, small red area in the middle of my sole.

2) Unfortunately I didn’t initially realize there would be bleeding and wiped the area with a wet paper towel which I discarded. This removed the object.

3) I think the most likely culprit is a stray shard of glass or a sharp little rock, from a dropped glass from months earlier or dragged in on someone’s shoe or a suitcase.

4) The doubt that worries me is whether it was actually a needle that somehow made its way into my apartment on a shoe and then somehow rolled to where I stepped on it. This seems unlikely to begin with, plus I guess it would have probably been harder to just wipe away as I did since it would have stuck in my foot more.

5) I entered the apartment over 2 hours prior to this incident, so whatever it was was in room temperature at least that long.

Is it correct that a non-hollow object poses 0 HIV risk in this situation since any contamination would have been inactivated?

Is it also correct that even a needle fragment would have not posed a risk since it would have had to be small and any tiny trace of hiv would have most likely died as well?

Ie. I assume no testing is needed?

Thank you for your patience with one of the many OCD sufferers on this site.

Contrary to statements you can find online and perhaps elsewhere, in the entire 40+ years of the world wide HIV/AIDS epidemic, there has never been a known case of someone infected by injury from a contaminated sharp object in the environment. This was a zero risk situation and you should not be tested for HIV on account of it.

Even if the object was a needle someone had used for injection, and even if it had HIV infected blood in it, the virus cannot survive more than a say or so. So a drug user would have had to discard the needle in your apartment just before you stepped on it. And certainly if it wasn't a needle but a shard of glass or a rock, HIV would not be possible. 

Those comments answer all five of your numbered questions. And yes, your comment about non-hollow objects is true:  zero risk. Same for your question about a "needle fragment". And as I've already said, no testing is needed.

I hope these comments help. Let me know if anything isn't clear. But I will not answer any additional question that has already been discussed, or whose answer is obvious from what was said in this or your pervious thread. OK?

HHH, MD

That concludes this thread. Please note the policy against repeated questions on the same topic. Your OCD worries are not suitable topics in absence of real risk!