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Avatar universal

Risk of HIV infection from cough?

Hello!
A man I don't know coughed at me on the street, I worry about; if he was HIV positive and had blood in his cough, could it be a risk for me? We were just a few centimentres apart for few seconds when it happened and I was breathing with my mouth so I am really concerned about the possibility of his cough, or part of it, ending up in my mouth and therefore infecting me. I am really sorry if my question is annoying or stupid but I am quite worried now...
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Avatar universal
Thanks to everyone very much for your answers; it really helped to calm my mind. And I also apologize if my concerns were offending to someone, I promise my intention was never to do so! Just it's incredibly stressful to have so much anxiety about this matter not to be even able to sleep at night etc.. Some ignorant and fearing informations on internet obviously didn't help in that neither (there were on few sites written that I could be at small risk if someone's cough contained blood and came in contact with my mouth where I could have tiny cuts/wounds) , but I couldn't stop looking for it... And eventually I couldn't help myself other than to ask people who know so much more about this... Again, I am really sorry if my questions were offending and thank you so much for taking your time to answer them.
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188761 tn?1584567620
COMMUNITY LEADER
Yes, our opinion won't change. Ingesting infected fluid is not a route to HIV infection.

Chima7 has already listed the ways this virus can be transmitted, you must focus at that.

I repeat, you were never at a risk.
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Avatar universal
HIV is not an airborne disease. It can only infect under very specific conditions, none of which happened here in your scenario. In an adult, only unprotected anal or vaginal sex and sharing IV drug needles with infected users are a risk.
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2 Comments
Thank you for your answer. Though, does that mean that, even if there was some blood in the cough of that man and if it got in my mouth and I inhaled/swallowed it, I am still not at the risk?
Did you have unprotected sex with this man?
Did you share IV drug needles to inject drugs into your veins?
No?
Then as I already explained, you had no risk.
188761 tn?1584567620
COMMUNITY LEADER
HIV is a sexually transmitted disease. You weren't at a risk.

Please read through the FAQ section of this forum for knowing about HIV and it's transmission routes.

You do not need to test.
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