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Hiv Scare and Confusion in DR's Office
Hello All,
I have a question i hope you can help me with. I was in my podiatrist office yesterday and he was cutting of a wart that i have on my toe. Now this is all fine but what scared me is that he pulled out one scalpel from his toolbox that was sitting in his office and wiped the blade off with a regular gauze. He then said this is to big so he grab another different scalpel out of his box and replaced that blade. My issue now is he is using the same gauze that he wiped the first scalpel off with that he did not change and is wiping the new instrument off with that as well.
My first question is if there was HIV+ blood on the first scalpel could the gauze have passed it over to the new scalpel that had been changed when he was wiping it down?
My second and last question is just say he accidently used the first scalpel by mixing the two up because they were right next to each other could that transmit hiv? Also i had been sitting in his room for a few minutes with the tool kit in there so i know at least it was not bloody for a few minutes before use on me. Lastly i did bleed but he was using more of a scraping motion and not jabbing this deep into my toe.
Thanks you so much for your help and hopefully i can stop worrying so much.
I have a question i hope you can help me with. I was in my podiatrist office yesterday and he was cutting of a wart that i have on my toe. Now this is all fine but what scared me is that he pulled out one scalpel from his toolbox that was sitting in his office and wiped the blade off with a regular gauze. He then said this is to big so he grab another different scalpel out of his box and replaced that blade. My issue now is he is using the same gauze that he wiped the first scalpel off with that he did not change and is wiping the new instrument off with that as well.
My first question is if there was HIV+ blood on the first scalpel could the gauze have passed it over to the new scalpel that had been changed when he was wiping it down?
My second and last question is just say he accidently used the first scalpel by mixing the two up because they were right next to each other could that transmit hiv? Also i had been sitting in his room for a few minutes with the tool kit in there so i know at least it was not bloody for a few minutes before use on me. Lastly i did bleed but he was using more of a scraping motion and not jabbing this deep into my toe.
Thanks you so much for your help and hopefully i can stop worrying so much.
HIV gets passed on in hollow needles because the blood can 'hide' from exposure to the environment. This wouldnt be the case on a scalpel. This was a no risk incident.
Hi Lizzie,
I really appreciate your comment and i respect your knowledge but i was just worried because it is a medical instrument and it seems that when it happens in a healthcare setting the DR's on the forum take it more seriously. I have seen where they have even said some ppl may qualify for PEP. Just wanted to ask besides it being an inanimate object would i not have to worry also because of the time it had been sitting in the office for those few minutes while i waited for the DR and the cutting was not to deep? Just trying to calm myself down and really hate that i even have to ask these crazy questions.
I really appreciate your comment and i respect your knowledge but i was just worried because it is a medical instrument and it seems that when it happens in a healthcare setting the DR's on the forum take it more seriously. I have seen where they have even said some ppl may qualify for PEP. Just wanted to ask besides it being an inanimate object would i not have to worry also because of the time it had been sitting in the office for those few minutes while i waited for the DR and the cutting was not to deep? Just trying to calm myself down and really hate that i even have to ask these crazy questions.
hiv is NOT transmitted from environmental surfaces or inanimate objects...regardless of whether or not there was blood on it.
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