Hello doctors:

I’m a healthy mid-30 year old male. I exercise regularly and eat healthy. I do not use drugs and I am in a monogamous heterosexual relationship [I never have unsafe sex]. I currently live with several roommates whom I do not know too well [I had to find a living arrangement quite quickly and I did not have the luxury of choosing roommates I new better]. This past weekend my roommates had several friends over for a social gathering. It was not a party but a get together. These guests stayed over the weekend. I found out today that two of the guests were homosexual men and one of them was HIV positive. I am now concerned because I shared a number of different drinks with both of these men, I shared plates of food with both of these men, both of these men used my bathroom, both of these men hung out in my room, and so on. Let me now ask my specific questions:

A] I read online drink sharing is not a risk. However, I had a larger cut inside of my mouth which I obtained from accidentally biting my cheek.  Is drink sharing no risk even if with this cut in my mouth or with other sores or cuts I may have had in my mouth? Should I be worried about any possible complications or caveats about drink sharing associated with cuts or sores in my mouth or their mouth or blood or other secretions in these drinks? And the same goes for sharing plates of food.

B] I noticed a plastic ziplock bag in my shaving kit and I don’t remember how it got there. Perhaps I’d put it in there before but I don’t remember. The reason I’m concerned is there was some white material on the bag. I worried what if this was semen that got onto my toothbrush in my shaving kit? From what I’ve read, it seems like this is low risk and my mind is racing, but I am not used to sharing space with gay men, one of which may be HIV + and another who is HIV+. Is this a risk? If semen got on my toothbrush, would it be a risk? If they had used my toothbrush or razor electric nose hair trimmer or other toiletries? Obviously I did not see them use any of my personal belongings so there would have been some time in between their potential use and my use of my toothbrush, razor, electric nose hair trimmer and other toiletries.

C] When I am unable to see my girlfriend, I usually masturbate before I go to sleep. My masturbation includes both rubbing my penis and inserting my fingers into my anus. This morning, I noticed white stains on my bed and some other darker stains which could be blood. Again, probably these stains had been there for a while, but if there had been blood, semen, or other secretions, is it possible that this got onto my hands or body and then put me at risk when I masturbated? And also, if there had been secretions on my bed, is it possible they got into my eyes or ears or nose or mouth or any other avenue that may have put me at risk?

I want to offer you my thanks in advance for your advice. I have a sense that my concerns are fueled by my inexperience being around HIV+ individuals. Be that as it may, I would be thankful if you could respond to my questions.

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PHEW! Thanks so much for your quick reply Dr. Hook. I feel so much relief!

I have one clarification I'd like on #3. You pointed out that mutual masturbation is safe sex. Does this mean that blood on my sheets would also not be a risk? My thinking is that mutual masturbation would generally involve sexual fluids and not blood. So I'm wondering if blood is more infectious and thus a cause for a concern over and beyond that of the zero risk associated with mutual masturbation.

I used the mutual masturbation comment as an example because the amount of virus in genital secretions is not that different from the amount in blood and there are no analogous situations for blood exposure to refer to.  Indeed however, if there were blood from an infected person on your sheets which had dried or been exposed to the environment, I would not be worried about contact with it as a risk for infection.  EWH
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You wrote: "Indeed however, if there were blood from an infected person on your sheets which had dried or been exposed to the environment, I would not be worried about contact with it as a risk for infection." If I'm understanding you right, the blood being on the sheets is being exposed to the environment, so fresh or not, the stains on my bed do not warrant any concern, are not a reason to test, and I don't need to worry my girlfriend about this. In addition, thanks for allowing these follow up questions, they have been useful. Finally, thanks again for your responses. I feel SO much better.

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