I would greatly appreciate your assistance please. This forum was recommended to me by a friend who said that you alleviated the stress he had regarding a sexual exposure and your advice was absolutely correct.

In the last 3 months I briefly dated two women (one Lebanese and one English). There was zero intercourse or oral sex (i.e. BJ or me giving).

The exposures were as follows:

Girl 1: 

Girl 2:

I do not know the HIV status of either and do not know if they were bleeding.

I spoke to my Doctor here in MENA about these exposures and she said that there was zero reason for concern regarding HIV and no need to test for it. She said that testing is only warranted in the event of unprotected intercourse or if my penis had entered their mouth.

As experts in this field, I would also appreciate your opinion. If I was your son, for example, would you tell me to move on with my life without worry and put this behind me?

Thank you in advance.

I agree exactly with your local physician. Neither HIV nor other STIs are transmitted by hand-genital contact, fingering, kissing, or oral contact with non-genital body areas, including breasts and nipples. There is no need to test for anything; and if you have a regular partner, you can continue your usual sexual practices with that person without putting them at risk. My advice would be the same if you were my son or any other person with whom I was personally close.

I hope these comments are helpful. Let me know if anything isn’t clear.

HHH, MD

I appreciate that this will be my last question before the thread is closed.

I popped a large boil on my face and it bled heavily. Before applying toilet paper, I wiped away blood with my finger.

Before popping the boil, I had not washed my hands.

I have read other answers in this forum which state that HIV is not transferred on people’s hands, fingers or from touching contaminated items (i.e bathroom door handles, towels, stationary etc.) and that large quantities of infected fluids are needed for there to be any risk (i.e ejaculation / blood exposure from a gunshot victim). Further, the wound must be deep.

Self manipulations of pimples, boils, or other skin problems is never a risk for any new infection of any kind. There is no realistic possibility your fingers carried an infection you could introduce to yourself. The boil itself could be loaded with staph, strep, or other virulent bacteria:  the main risk of such manipulation is spread of infection from the boil itself, not from any new infection from your fingers. It does not matter what items you may have touched before hand.

You have one more follow-up comment coming if there is anything about your original question or this one that you are unclear about.

I don't know that we "have never been wrong" -- but we stand by our advice over the years. But thanks for the thanks!

So to conclude: move on with my life with zero concern regarding the French kissing / fingering episode AND touching my bleeding boil. No risk of HIV infection for either and no need to test?

My ‘never been wrong’ comment was reference to the fact I understand nobody on the forum has turned out to be HIV positive following the advice of yourself and Dr Hook.

I agree with your "so to conclude" statement. Correct that the forum has yet to have a question from someone worried about HIV who turned out to be positive.

Best regards in return and thank you for referring others who might desire information about HIV or other STIs.