[Question #9339] Possible hiv exposure from dirty needle
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33 months ago
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Hello, thank you so much for this service, ok so I work in a inner city doing different cleaning jobs and today in the area I was working I noticed a lot of discarded (dirty) syringes. I was wearing a type of cloth glove with I guess a small latex coating but when I raked together a pile of trash and went to use my hand to hold it to the shovel I was stuck with something on my finger. I through it in the trash and did not specifically see a needle go in to my finger but I am very worried that I could have gotten hiv. I took off the glove and noticed a small puncture on my finger though it didn’t really appear to bleed. I am very worried I have been exposed to hiv and it makes me feel so bad because I could give it to my wife. I was wondering how long I need to wait to get tested and what the odds are that I did indeed get hiv or hep, though I am mostly concerned about hiv. I was also wondering if you guys have ever heard of someone getting hiv this way. I am trying to put my mind at ease but I cannot. I always knew this was a risk but until today nothing had happen to make me worry. Please let me know when to get tested and when I can once again have sex with my wife without risk and the odds of this exposure making me hiv positive. Thank you guys so much for being so smart and applying it in such a amazing way.
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33 months ago
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33 months ago
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Hello, I added a picture of the puncture wound on my finger and circled the spot with a yellow line. Thank you
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33 months ago
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I tired to copy the image but I’m not sure if it is loading
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
33 months ago
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Welcome to the forum. Thanks for your question. I’ll be happy to comment. This was a very low risk exposure but there is a small theoretical risk of infection. The reasons that I say this word was low risk are as follows:
1. The puncture did not draw blood. Thus it was unlikely to have introduced anything into your bloodstream where it could cause infection.
2. You do not know that when the needle is used, it was used by a person who was infected with HIV.
3. Overtime when exposed to the environment, even within the inside of a hollow needle, HIV becomes noninfectious relatively quickly.
4. Scientific studies have shown that following a needle stick which occurred immediately after removal of a used needle from an untreated, HIV infected person, less than one percent of individuals become infected.
When you put all of these facts together, the likelihood of becoming infected in your case is minuscule. I would estimate that the chances are more than 99.9% that you were not infected. FYI, We have been asked this question many times on the forum and I’ve never heard or seen a person who became infected with HIV following exposure of the sort you describe.
In hospitals and medical clinics when needlesticks occur from a person known to be HIV infected, persons who have been stuck are sometimes treated with preventative medicine to further reduce the risk of acquiring HIV. Personally, we’re I am your place, I would not pursue preventative HIV therapy however if you choose to pursue this with your own doctor, I encourage you to do so as quickly as possible. The studies show that the sooner preventative therapy is started the more effective it is. If you choose not to pursue preventative therapy, which is the course I would follow, you may want to test for HIV with a blood test six weeks after your exposure. Results at that time, which I anticipate would be negative, would prove that you were not affected by this exposure.
I hope this information is helpful to you. EWH
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33 months ago
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Hello Doctor,
Wow that makes me feel so much better. Thank you for your through response. I do tend to get anxious though and was wondering if there are any reliable hiv test that I could take before 6 weeks. I had been doing some research which I know is not always accurate but I found something that said you can do a hiv test between 10 and 90 days after exposure.
And I do not me to irritate you but I also saw on the internet that hiv can live in a needle for up to 42 days after it’s used and was wondering if there’s any truth to that. Also because this has me so worried (in your professional opinion) would you suggest I get a different job due to the fact that this could happen again. Though I’m usually very careful I just got careless yesterday. Thank you Doctor
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33 months ago
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Sorry, I also wanted to ask if before the 6week test if you would consider it safe to have sex with my wife. We are trying to have a baby and I would feel forever terrible if I gave it to her or the baby. Thank you
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
33 months ago
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The thread should’ve been closed earlier. You will get brief answers to your extra questions and then the thread will be closed without further responses.
HIVPCR tests are considered by many to be conclusive 11 to 12 days following an exposure. Despite that, most experts still recommend follow up at six weeks with a regular, fourth generation combination HIV antigen/antibody test. I am not aware and have not seen an instance in which persons with a negative HIVPCR at 11 or 12 days went on to then become positive.
Regarding a change in job, I do not think that is needed. My advice would be to get better gloves and be cautious.
By and large, information found on the Internet is unreliable and taken out of context. There may be reports of long-lived HIV within needles just as there are statistical concerns that while reading this you will be struck by a meteor falling from space. Your risk Remains very, very low as I said above. Were i you, I would not bother testing. Thus, obviously, I would not let concerns about HIV prevent me from having unprotected sex with my regular partner.
This ends this thread. Once again I urge you to move on without concern. EWH---
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
33 months ago
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