[Question #3507] HIV through clothes?
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89 months ago
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Dear Doctor
I went to a hospital the other day. I changed into a rob there ( i.e hospital gown) and was told to sit outside whilst waiting for an x-ray. A man was sitting 1 minute before I sat down. He was fully in clothes ( pants/jeans etc) . I was nervous, so i sweat a lot and then when I got up I could see the seat was wet. It was a plastic seat, by the way. Probably from me, but I got worried. If it was his secretion, and I sat on them like 30 seconds later, and I have little anal fissures at the moment, am I still OK . As I said, I was sitting there without underwear, but in a hospital gown, and 30 seconds earlier he sat there fully clothed. Is there a risk for HIV if he had a fissure too and was bleeding? I saw some brown spot on the seat , but did not think about it twice beforehand and still sat down. I did not feel wetness there. I understand no one was infected ever from an exposure ( if it was an exposure at all) like that. But is it still plausible or completely no risk?
Thank you
I went to a hospital the other day. I changed into a rob there ( i.e hospital gown) and was told to sit outside whilst waiting for an x-ray. A man was sitting 1 minute before I sat down. He was fully in clothes ( pants/jeans etc) . I was nervous, so i sweat a lot and then when I got up I could see the seat was wet. It was a plastic seat, by the way. Probably from me, but I got worried. If it was his secretion, and I sat on them like 30 seconds later, and I have little anal fissures at the moment, am I still OK . As I said, I was sitting there without underwear, but in a hospital gown, and 30 seconds earlier he sat there fully clothed. Is there a risk for HIV if he had a fissure too and was bleeding? I saw some brown spot on the seat , but did not think about it twice beforehand and still sat down. I did not feel wetness there. I understand no one was infected ever from an exposure ( if it was an exposure at all) like that. But is it still plausible or completely no risk?
Thank you
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
89 months ago
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Welcome to the forum. Thanks for your question and your confidence in our services.
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Some questions can be answered based only on the title. The answer to "[Transmission of] HIV through clothes?" is no; this has never been known to happen. Cloth fibers almost certainly would filter out enough virus to prevent transmission. (Even with ejaculation of HIV-loaded semen deep in the vagina, the transmission risk is roughly 1 in a thousand. So what could it possibly be without even have sex or penetration?)
Going to the specifics of your question, you correctly state that nobody has ever been known to become infected with HIV, or any other blood borne infection, by contact in a doctor's office of the sort you describe. And as I said above, neither HIV nor any other STD bacteria or virus could pass through clothing in an amount that would be infectious. On top of that, you were clothed yourself, so there is no way virus on the seat could make it's way to HIV susceptible cells deep inside your body.
So no risk and definitely no worries! I hope this infomration is helpful, but let me know if anything isn't clear.
HHH, MD