[Question #8103] Possible Needle stick or not? Any risk?

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

48 months ago

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HHH, MD

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48 months ago

Sorry doctor my mistake,

I am a cardiac catheterization technician in my intern year, 4 days ago while I was discarding some of the iv needles (24 gauge) was used on a newborn baby he is a 5 months old here in Saudi Arabia .

one of the needles has touched me, didn’t poked or stick me or penetrate the skin or even the gloves, just a touch for a second, it’s not even a scratch.

The gloves looks intact, no penetration.

The finger looks 100% intact no penetration occurred. There is no blood on the gloves at all or my finger when I removed the gloves, I didn’t feel anything, just realized the needle touched my finger.

just little numb when I squeeze the finger so hard to see if there is blood which it didn’t.

And yes my finger is intact no pencture or anything.

even the needle looks clean or little blood I’m not sure because it’s was unsecessful.

I told my supervisor and he advises me not to report it because it’s not a needle stick and there was no penetration so there is no need for a long protocol to be followed, but because of my OCD and little concerns in the past I’m worried.

1- does this can be called needle stick Injury? If it’s not what is the needle stick for the future?

2- do I need to test or expect symptoms?

3- the or room was for pediatric so the temperature was 80 degree and the needle was exposed to air for about 15 minutes before discarded the virus must be inactive if it’s at all present in a 5 months baby in Saudi Arabia!

4- it’s to late for PEP or do I need it?

Thank you doctor

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

48 months ago

Welcome back to the forum. Directly to your questions:

1) From your description, I do not believe this qualifies as a needle stick injury and I see no risk for HIV. And as far as I know, the chance a 5 mo. old Saudi baby would have HIV must be zero for all practical purposes. Equally or more important, you correctly reported the event to your supervisor -- if he believes there was no penetration, I see no reason not to rely on it. In any case, nobody has ever been known to acquire HIV from an event like this.

2) I see no need for testing.

3) I agree that even if the baby were infected, HIV would not survive the drying in the circumstances you describe and could not cause infection.

4) You do not need PEP; that would be really dumb and I urge you to not seek it.

You can and should ignore this event and not worry about it. I hope these comments are helpful. Let me know if anything isn't clear.

HHH, MD

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48 months ago

Thanks doctor all clear, I have no further questions about this incident, I just found out the father of the child is a 31 years old doctor and his mother is a nurse, both Saudis.

So with his parents status and his age and also the fact That’s the needle didn’t contain much blood and didn’t penetrate me or the gloves and my finger looks intact and didn’t bleed and also the exposure to air factor and in it makes all the situation zero risk do you agree?

And just to clarify my supervisor took my words he didnt saw anything.

1- However I have a quastion about me regarding my mental health, is there any scientific data or study that’s says an obsession or worry to much about hiv makes you get it at the end? I always worry about no risk events daily, like going to the dentist having blood draws, touch objects in my head I believe there are might be contaminated with infected blood, shakes hand and being scratch by object! Every time I have a normal cut I loose sleep at nights and also recently I got a lot of nightmares about this disease while sleeping, also when I watching movies and they talk about it a freaks out, in my mind it’s like a massage from god! With the fact I spend a lot of time searching in the internet about these non risk event, so is this a health anxiety or uneducated enough or it’s a risk?

2- for educational purposes, how many minutes of hours or days does the virus survive in air? Is there is a risk of touching object with a recently cuts in hand or fingers or even being cut superficially by objects? Because months ago in the gym I was working out with a cut in my finger and got hit by a bar directly to my nose + walking barefooted in the beach with an athlete foot condition

Thanks doctor, I hope you clarify my issues.

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

48 months ago

1. Sorry, But this is anHIV/STI service; we’re not psychologists. There is nothing special about obsessive worries about HIV, andHIVrelated expertise is not likely to help. I suggest you consider professional counseling; your primary care provider can help with a referral.

Survival of HIV outside the body isn’t the issue. It’s a very fragile virus, and is generally believed to be non-infectious as soon as secretions dry. But since nobody has ever been know to be infected from a contaminated object or surface, the biological reasons don’t matter. Which is one important reason little research on virus survival has been done.

That concludes this thread. I hope it has been helpful.

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