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Avatar universal

Possible Exposure and Testing accuracy

Hello everyone, I was going to ask the doctor/expert but cannot find the page to do so, but I’ll ask here...

Today I cut my hand while walking with my four year old. A couple minutes later, with blood still forming a bubble from the cut, my child reached out and rubbed against the blood and immediately put his hand into his mouth. I confirmed a small smear of blood on my hand around the cut afterwards.

I wasn’t concerned at first, as I had been recently tested for hepatitis, but when searching I also saw HIV as a possible risk. I haven’t been tested in over ten years, so I began to worry about if I did possibly have HIV and my child did get my blood into his mouth, if he was at risk.

Being the worrier that I am I decided to go get a rapid HIV test at the health department. The nurse was very kind, but didn’t remember how to do it and messed up the first test. We then read the instructions together and a second test correctly and it came up non reactive. My only concern is that she really had to squeeze my finger to get enough blood out for a good bit of time. I had read afterwards that squeezing can invalidate the results due to reasons like tissue fluid diluting the sample or something with it rupturing blood cells.

I’m so tired and trying not to fear google anymore.

First and foremost was what happened even a risk to my child if the off chance I was positive?

Should I be concerned with the squeezing for the blood making the test a false negative?

Thank you so much
-a very worried dad
4 Responses
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188761 tn?1584567620
COMMUNITY LEADER
You were never at risk. Condoms protect against transmission of HIV. Oral is not a risk. Therefore, you are not positive at the first place to transmit this virus to your child.

Hypothetically speaking, even if your child ingested some amount of infected fluid, there is no level of risk associated, since it is not the right route to transmission. Presence of saliva and gastric acid inhibits the virus.

You are being paranoid and it will be a good idea to discuss this with a therapist to overcome such irrational worries.
Helpful - 0
370181 tn?1595629445
I'm sorry to be redundant since your questions and concerns have been more than adequately answered. I CAN understand your concern considering all the fear surrounding COVID......while these issues (HIV/, COVID) are not related, it has, unfortunately, brought back the fear/paranoia/panic of the AIDS scare during the 80's.  I just wanted to also reassure you that your son had zero risk of contracting HIV from this situation.....even IF you were HIV+  I'm with GuitarBox on this one, thinking it's more of an anxiety issue that you need to deal with.  Getting tested, which we all believe is unnecessary in this case, is an option for you to gain some much needed peace of mind so you can move on. If your negative result (which I'm sure it will be) does not curb your anxiety, your next step would be to seek therapy.  Your son may only be four years old, but don't think they can't pick up on anxiety at that age. Do whatever you have to for BOTH of you.  
Helpful - 0
20620809 tn?1504362969
You know what seems to be being missed here?  REGARDLESS of the test, you never put your child at risk any way.  They can get your blood in their mouth and it is NOT a risk for HIV.  Air and saliva inactivate the virus. Also, you don't think it is a little bit odd that you all of a sudden wonder if you actually have HIV? That really does sound like irrational and anxious thinking.  If you've never tested before then fine, take a test.  But it is most likely negative and you could not transmit HIV through your child getting your blood in their mouth any way.  

If you have episodes like this often where you fill with worry over what is hard to make sense of as to why, then seek help for anxiety.
Helpful - 0
3 Comments
The ONLY ways to get hiv is to have unprotected (without condom) intercourse (with penetration) either vaginal or anal or sharing IV drug needles).
Thank you... I can read similar posts and not get comforted, but it’s helpful to hear a direct response to my concerns. I 100% acknowledge that I have irrational fear. I’ve actually got it under control in the past five years, but have found myself falling into those old patterns in the wake of the pandemic currently spreading.

Thank you for talking sense.
Hopefully you are feeling better now.  I know it is a scary time with the global illness and that can bring out more overall stress.  But you did not and could not put your child at risk from getting blood in her mouth.  HIV is not spread that way.  
Avatar universal
Your situation involves having a bit of a panic attack that you are hiv positive and continuing to worry, despite getting a negative test result. No worries, these tests are accurate so you should move on.
You are thinking the nurse does not know how to do her job PLUS you think that you figured out how she should have done it despite not having any medical training. That doesn't really make any sense, so you should accept the test result just like you would accept any other medical test and forget about this non event.
Helpful - 0
5 Comments
I just said that she didn’t know how to because she messed up the first one by trying it backwards. We had to read the instructions together to do the test the second time... I don’t doubt the accuracy of the test itself, I’m just concerned we had to squeeze my finger a lot to get blood out, and I read afterwards in the manual to avoid squeezing as tissue fluid could dilute the blood, so that’s what I’m asking, if I could still trust it even with all the squeezing.
In that case, perhaps you should take this up with the clinic to see if they will give you another test, free. How long ago was your last unprotected anal or vaginal penetration (which are the only ways you can get hiv other than sharing hollow needles that you use to inject with), since the 10 year old test?
You can buy a cheap oraquick DIY test for a conclusive test result if your last risk was over 3 months ago.
I plan to go Monday for another test, but am wishing I could know before the 72 hour window for my child to be treated if he was exposed to positive blood.

I’ve read so many horror stories in the Amazon comments of OraQuick giving false positives, that I don’t want to risk that.

Do you think the possible exposure to my child is even something to be concerned about in the first place?
I have only had a couple of sexual partners in the past couple of years, the last being six months ago, and I always used protection for penetration. I’ve had unprotected oral and frottage with these people however.
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