Dr,
I have seen similar questions on this board but wanted to get your opinion. Last week at a memorial day event there were several groups of people preparing food for an outdoor party. One of the individuals cut there finger while peeling a cucumber (pretty good cut with blood), it was about 75 degrees inside the kitchen. The next person started using the peeler without washing the blood off of it. The person that cut his finger then began helping slice the cucumbers again and may have gotten blood from his "bandade" onto some of the cucumber slices. The dish sat inside for about 30 minutes and then was placed outside (88 deg F) for about 20-30 minutes before people begain eating the cucumbers from the bowl. Is there a chance that someone could get HIV infected (if it were present) from pieces of blood on the cucumbers after sitting about 40-60 minutes? Also, one of the kids eating the cucumbers got a severe fever 4 days after eating some of this dish, the fever has lasted 3-4 days already. What are the chances that if the blood that got on the cucumbers was HIV+ that it could infect a 7 yr old kid who ate the cucumbers? I ask this question because I question whether the blood ever "dried" if it was attached to a cucumber?