hello doctors 10 days ago i had a HIV test in a very reputable lab in Rio de janeiro, Brazil , the phetolobomist show me the needle was new and i also saw that she was using new gloves , i was looking carefully to the needle than i saw the green plastic tray where she bring the vacutainner tube , i saw some red substance inside that i believe it was blood i cant tell it could have beeing something else i dont know why i didnt ask at the moment , but later when i came back she said that could not have beeing blood i said that there was something red inside that look similar , she said that could have beeing the red marker that she uses , i ask if it was iodine  she said that they dont use it . i became extremely afraid because that was a gentlemen there before me like 5 minutes  and im thinking the vacutainner tube could have touched contaminated blood , i know it is unlikely that blood would touch the part that would be punctured by the needle but if that happened , i was at risk of HIV infection ?i have asked two doctors one actually a resident , the first one said there was no risk as the needle was new , the resident in the ER was a very young woman and she said to me that she have no ideia about hiv or how the vacum tubes for blood draw work , than she recommended me to go to the infectious diseases hospital (the only one in Rio de janeiro ) to get pep . i didnt went because i thought she had no ideia what she was saying . i trusted the literature that says that hiv is never transmited by blood draw unless the needle is not new .now i have lost the chance to take pep . im having alot of ars symptoms my throat is a litlee sore but the worse is that im having pain in my bones and muscles specially in the shoulder and neck sometimes all over the body maybe im very tense and anxious .here in Brazil we dont have STD/ hiv counselors so i need your help , what would be the risk if infected blood touch the part of the vacum tube that would be pucture by the needle?

Welcome to the forum.---

thanks for the answer Dr Handsfield and apologize my english mistakes , i was thinking that this would be your answer as i have read similar questions in another web site where people use to send questions to you some were similar to mine , but none of this questions where exactly like mine they were about people with fear to contract hiv by blood draw because of dirty needles , cotton with blood or wherever in my case if there was blood it was only inside the plastic tray . you said that there is no way blood would come in contact with equiment used  , only the vacuteiner tube was in the plastic tray/basket so only the vacutteiner tube could have touch blood  , after the blood draw she show me the tube to check my name on it and i didnt notice any blood on the tube  . the rest of the equipment the  needle  , gloves and cotton the phelebotomist took from a separeted cabinet , she opened the needle in front of me i made sure i saw it . the symptoms have  worried alot but they mostly dissaperead after i receive your answer and other doctor answer im still felling a litle pain in the back because im still a litle tense but i believe the pain in the neck , shoulders and other parts of the body was caused by stress and anxiety . i was using a cream called triamcinolone acetonide 1 mg because i was bitting the inside of my cheecks and was hurting really bad , that caused me some stomach/gas problems because i have swallow alot but im unaware of the side effects of this medications .  my family is very conservative christian family and my wife is also , she married virgin and nobody will believe me if i get hiv from  blood draw/test they will think im lying , just giving the reasons for me to be so anxious doctor . sorry  but i have 4 questions to ask you.

HIV is much harder to transmit than you seem to think. Like a lot of people, you assume that any exposure at all is risky, as if "just one virus" is enough to transmit. Not true for most infections, and definitely not HIV. Large amounts of virus must come into contact with specific kinds of cells which typically are deep inside the body, or must get directly into the bloodstream. The events you describe in a lab do not meet those critiera. As an example, if infected semen is desposited inside a woman's vagina, the average transmission risk is once for every 1,000 exposures.---

Hello Doctor as this will be the end of this thread i will clarify all my doubts , as you have asked i do have OCD but its related to numbers i do not have extreme fear of hiv i always read about people with fear of hiv from enviromental surfaces and i found this fears to be unfounded or ridiculous i hope i dont get on this path it is something i will definetely talk with my therapist about .

As for all with OCD, there is always another question. It's part of the disease, and this is what I see in these questions.---