I’ve been going to therapy and working on my ocd regarding hiv. I had a situation happen last night I want to make sure. I was grabbing a piece of paper from someone, they had to look for mine they were working with these papers all night so it’s not impossible they got a paper cut . I myself ended up getting a pin prick like paper cut from my paper a few minutes later. I didn’t pay much attention at the time and also didn’t check my hand for bleeding per my ocd protocol. Sure enough later I saw a small pin size red dot on the paper. Per cbt, I calmed myself reasoning I didn’t see the woman handing me the paper get a paper cut, the dot could’ve been anything or even could be my own blood but I want to make sure this is not a serious issue I’m underplaying. Is this something I need to get pep for or get tested if I came in contact with someone else’s blood on paper with a paper cut size open wound? Logically even if she also got a cut from the same edge that edge would be wet with blood and not sharp so I’m mostly wondering about contact with her blood after I got my paper cut.

This was a no risk event as I will explain below. Before that however let me remind you that statistically it is unlikely that the blood that you may have come into contact with was contaminated with HIV, hepatitis, or any other infectious agent. Furthermore even if the blood were contaminated, exposure to the environment, even briefly, results in a loss of infectivity due to exposure to the air, the effect of drying, and the effect of lower temperatures.  Thus, even if the paper which you may have been in contact with work contaminated with infectious bud, you would not be at risk for infection from your contact.

There is no reason for concern regarding the events that you described. There is certainly no reason for seeking postexposure prophylaxis and no medical or scientific reason for testing for HIV. I hope that my explanations will help you to move forward from this event. Please don’t worry. EWH

Thank you

1.  I consider this scenario in my initial response which is unchanged. This was a no risk event. Fear of cross-contamination troubles persons with OCD but it’s not a realistic concern. As stated above, HIV is not transmit it on inanimate objects. This includes paper even if two people sustain paper cut from the same paper.

2.  Persons have many natural barriers to infection including what is referred to as “ innate “ immunity ( a concept too complex to address here). That is the reason that even with penetrative genital sex, fewer than one in 1000 persons directly exposed to untreated persons with HIV acquire infection (I. E. In other words 99.9% of the time with sexual contact to infected persons infections infections are NOT transmitted. This is because of innate immunity. 

You are worrying needlessly.  HIV is for harder to acquire then you were OCD causes you to believe.

Hope this helps. EWH