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Blood on cuts
Hi, any help would be appreciated. It’s a long story why this happened, but I ended up vigorously hand washing a cloth (about the size of a face towel) covered in someone else’s fresh blood. The blood had been on the cloth for about 2 minutes, so it was still fresh and there was plenty of blood coming from the cloth when I squeezed it out in the sink. I then ran the cloth under warm water for 5 seconds before washing it with just water and then I added soap after washing it with just water for a while. My concern is my nail biting. I bite my nails to the point where they are raw and sometimes bleed out. I had bitten them to this point the day before I touched/washed the cloth and I am now concerned that, with how vigorously I was washing the fresh blood might have found its way into my bloodstream through the raw fingernails beds which were already red and raw from bleeding the previous day. Should I be worried about this?
Your situation involves personal contact with an object in air (towel, blood, fingers, cuts, etc. ). You will be happy to learn that you had no risk, because you can't get hiv from personal contact except unprotected penetrating vaginal or anal with a penis, neither of which you did and you didn't share hollow needles to inject with which is the only other way to acquire hiv - there are ONLY 3 ways to get hiv. Note that 2 of them require a penis and the third requires a hollow injecting shared needle - there are no OTHER ways to get 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.
No one got hiv from what you did during 40 years of hiv history and no one will get it in the next 40 years of your life either. You can do what you did any time and be safe from hiv.
The other person's status is irrelevant when you have no exposure to live virus.
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.
No one got hiv from what you did during 40 years of hiv history and no one will get it in the next 40 years of your life either. You can do what you did any time and be safe from hiv.
The other person's status is irrelevant when you have no exposure to live virus.
That's in no way a risk for HIV. HIV is only transmitted by having unprotected vaginal or anal sex or sharing IV needles to INJECT drugs. Air inactivates the virus. Cleaning blood from cloth would never transmit the virus.
4 Comments
Even if the cloth was blood soaked, as in the blood was still dripping from it from how drenched it was and it had just come out of the body 2 minutes earlier so it was very fresh.
Your question was answered no risk and nothing you add to it will make it a risk.
I’m just worried about how badly I bite my nails. I bite them so bad that the skin under my nail beds is white and exposed and blood comes out from them. Surely blood can soak into them and cause a risk?
HIV does not infect via minor cuts and scrapes like you describe. HIV needs access to enter the bloodstream, which is not easy. Any wounds that do not require urgent medical attention are insufficient to provide access to the bloodstream. I am sure you were not in danger of bleeding to death from your finger wounds and they are, therefore, not a risk for HIV.
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