[Question #1682] accidents
96 months ago
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during accidents many people get injured badly and there is a lot fresh wound and a lot blood . suppose if a person's fresh wound or mucous membrane gets exposed to a large amount of blood (from another person)during an accident. what will be your advice to them??.did anyone got HIV from like events?
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
96 months ago
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Welcome to the Forum. Exposures of the sort you describe, if the person from whom the blood come from had HIV, there is a theoretical risk of getting HIV. The recommendation following an exposure of the sort you describe would be to test the person from whom the blood came from should be tested for HIV and until test results were available, it would be recommended for the exposed person to take post exposure prophylactic therapy with medications for HIV.
These recommendations are based on taking an abundance of caution because of the theoretical nature of the exposure but the fact is that I have never heard of a person who acquired HIV in the manner you describe. I would urge you not to worry about the exposure but to follow the recommendations.
My sense is that this question is not based on an actual exposure but is theoretical in nature. If that is the case, my sense is that you are overly worried about exposures to HIV. EWH
96 months ago
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2)my sense is that you are saying to get tested for hiv, if a person gets involved in accidents.
3)does amount of blood make any difference in opinion??
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
96 months ago
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1. These sorts of make believe//"what if" questions are not useful to you or to me. The answers depend on the situation and circumstance. Dr. Handsfield and I always agree on our recommendations and your question takes his replies out of the context of the answers he (and I) have provided in the past. In general, I do not recommend testing is such situations either.
Everyone knows that the prevalence of HIV varied from country to country and population to population. In some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, up to 20 or 25% of persons have HIV so the risk of exposure is much higher than here in the U.S. where less than 1% of people have HIV. In general and in nearly all of the past questions asked about such exposures I too have recommended against testing or concern.
2. In most settings, possible exposures occurring in the context of accidents do NOT warrant testing.
3. The amount of blood to which a person is exposed is a minor concern.
I urge you to give up on make believe questions. If you have a specific question related to an actual event that occurred, I will be happy to answer. As I indicated above, in general these sort of curiosity-driven questions are a waste of your time and mind and there is so much variation in the details of possible exposure. EWH