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Auger Blade, Hand, Little blood

Hello,

This is my first time posting there, will appreciate your expert assessment of my risk. I had my snowblower at repair shop yesterday, they fixed it and delivered it back.

Today we had a lot of snow in Charlette, US.  I used the snow blower for 1 hr and as I was parking it in my garage got a significant cut on my finger from one of its blades. I cleaned the wound and did first aid, the cut did not need any stitches or visit to emergency but it did bleed.

Here are some facts....

1. It was roughtly 16 hrs after the snowblower was delivered to my place that I got but.
2. Temperatures today are below zero freezing
3. Snowblower was kept in garage so exposed to air and oxygen

Questions

1. Am I at risk for HIV if someone at shop had cut his/her hand on the same blade and there was blood on the blade, if its true am I at risk?
2. Will HIV be active in sub zero temperatures, exposed to Oxygen and after 16 hrs?
3. Does water/snow deactivate HIV virus? Am thinking i used the snowblower before I got cut so blades but be in contact with water/snow.
4. Do I need testing?

Thank you so much..
2 Responses
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20620809 tn?1504362969
I agree with the others that this is not an HIV scenario.  HIV is really a sexually transmitted disease.   The only ways you will get HIV is to have unprotected vaginal or anal sex or share IV drug needles.  That's it. Air would have inactivated the virus in the off chance someone with HIV works at the shop which is an unlikely scenario.  No risk, no worries about HIV.
Helpful - 0
207091 tn?1337709493
HIV dies very quickly outside of a human host and exposed to air. Even if it hadn't been exposed to the snow/cold temps/water, it would have died.

You have no risk from this at all and do not need testing.

You may want to contact your doctor about a tetanus shot if the blades are metal, though. It sounds like they are in good shape, but it doesn't hurt to check.
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
Your situation involves personal contact with an object in air  ( blade, saliva, maybe blood, etc.). No hiv worries, because you can't get hiv from personal contact except unprotected penetrating vaginal or anal, neither of which you did and you didn't share hollow needles to inject with which is the only other way to acquire hiv. Analysis of large numbers of infected people over the 40 years of hiv history has proven that people don't get hiv in the way you are worried is a risk.
HIV is a fragile virus in air or saliva and is effectively instantly dead in either air or saliva so the worst that could happen is dead virus rubbed you, and obviously anything which is dead cannot live again so you are good. Blood and cuts would not be relevant in your situation since the hiv has become effectively dead, so you don't have to worry about them to be sure that you are safe.
There is no reason for a person to test when they are safe. The advice took into consideration that the other person might be positive, so move on and enjoy life instead of thinking about this non-event. hiv prevention is straightforward since there are only 3 ways you can become infected, so next time you wonder if you had a risk, ask yourself this QUESTION. "Did I do any of the 3?" Then after you say "No, I didn't" you will know that it's time to move on back to your happy life.
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