I've juvenile diabetes since 4 years and i frequently use insulin and check my blood sugar levels. Today I had my one touch device ready with lancet attached to it, to check the random sugar levels, and got preoccupied with something important. I left my lancet in the device. When I came back the devide was moved from where i had left it. Mindlessly, I used it anyway. I used it for multiple pricks, as it did not work well the first time and the drop of blood wasnt good enough to be tested. So now that i sit back and think of the instance, i fear I might have acted stupid, since there is a possibility somebody might have just fooled around with it and pricked themselves too. And I used the same thing multiple times on myself. I'm not very sure about who has what kind of blood infection and what's their current status. Have I put myself at risk for HIV? Do I need to get tested? If yes, when is the earliest that I can do it? I was tested negative 5 weeks back. Please tell me what should be my next course of action?

You need to be patient.  Questions are not answered upon assignment or in real time. 

We receive questions of this sort from time to time and the answer is always the same- the likelihood that you are at risk for HIV or for any other blood-born infection from the events you describe are virtually zero and not something I would worry about.  There are numberous reasons that this is the case- here are some of the reasons you should not worry:

1.  PArt of the answer is in your question.  "One-touch" devices are designed to be used just once.  It is most unlikely that your device would even be useable if someone else had used it.

2.  Lancets of the sort you describe are solid and as such, do not carry blood from person to person even if it were possible to use them more than once.  Needles transmit these infections because they are hollow and blood can be trapped inside them.

3.  Just because the device had moved does not mean that someone contaminated the device, intentionally or otherwise.

4.  HIV dies quickly on exposure to the environment so even if in some peculiar way your lancet was contaminated, the likelihood that there would be infectious HIV present is quite low, if not zero.  

5.  If someone else had contaminated your device, statistically it is still unlikely that hey did not have HIV- despite the relatively high prevalence locally, most people in Mumbai do not.

Thus, putting all of these reasons together, I see no reason for you to worry or to test for HIV.  If you feel you must, you could test using a 4th generation, combination HIV antigen/antibody test at 6 weeks (42 days) after your exposure and the results (which I would expect to be negative) would be definitive.

I hope these comments are helpful.  EWH

 Thanks

Blood in food, even fresh blood will not result in risk for HIV.  No chance of infection.

This is my third reply to your questions.  This thread will not be closed as per Forum rules.  EWH