[Question #4538] hiv by semen
81 months ago
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First off all i want to apologize for the following strange question. But i got an anxiety disorder relating hiv. Furthermore i want to excuse me for my bad english, because it is not my native language.
I shook hands with someone and noticed his hands were wet and a white fluid was on his hands (normal people would probably assume that this fluid was sope but in my mind i am sure it must have been fresh, fluid semen).
Afterwards i washed my hands with cold water and soap. Now i fear that there was some semen left on my hands because i oversaw something (At this moment i wasnt thinking of hiv). Is it possible to transmit hiv this way if i accidental touched muscous membrane with my hands about 2-3 hours after this incident (i dont really know if this happend because as i told at this moment i was not aware of hiv).
12 hours later this incdent came into my mind and i panicked. I washed my hands again and afterwards remembered that i touched my penis a few times when i was at toilet so i started to clean it with water and a washcloth. By accident i touched afterwards with the wet washclouth the muscous membrane of my penis. Is there a risk of getting hiv this way if i got the semen i had on my hands on my penis and afterwards on the washclouth with whom i touched the muscous membrane of my penis?
I read on the internet that the hi-virus is very fragile and "dies" once it is exposed to the air and the fluid has dried up. Is this true ? Do i need a hiv test?
Thank you very much.
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
81 months ago
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Welcome to our Forum. I hope that the advice I am about to provide to you will be helpful While I am not completely sure of the circumstances under which this person's wet hands occurred, the likelihood that he had semen on his hands, as well as the likelihood that he had HIV is miniscule and not something to worry about. Even if the material you contacted was semen and even if the person did have HIV, there would NO risk to you of acquiring HIV from it. This is true even if you then went on to touch your penis or wipe you eyes, still no risk. As you note the HIV virus is very fragile and becomes non-infectious virtually immediately once outside the body. As a reminder of just how no risk this event was, let me remind you that the CDC and WHO consider mutual masturbation in which sexual partners get each others genital secretions on one another as no risk events. the situation you describe is even lower risk. thus, there is no reason for concern and no reason for testing. You can move forward without concern.
I hope that this information is helpful to you. EWH
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