medical waste

[Deekatz2302]

hey, i worked in a medical office where i dropped one of the doctors Burs in the garbage, that garbage had tissues with blood and cotton balls with blood and everything that touched the patients mouth. Its a dental office. It was not the Sharps box. Anyways, this alarmed me, i waited 92 days to test and I tested "non reactive" but this still makes me extremly worried and uneasy. some people say the window period is 6 months.

[Jcc1970]

In SHORT!!!  HIV is a very fragile virus that CANNOT remain infectious outside of the body.  HIV is NOT alive.  It can't crawl across the floor and sink it's teeth into you.  It has to be placed INSIDE the body with near PERFECT conditions to infect.

The virus is either active or inactive.  Exposure to the environment i.e. in the trash starts to break down the outer shell that protects the virus itself immediately.  Thus, rendering the virus inactive within seconds to a minute or two depending on what you read.

You also need to realize something.  There are roughly 40-50 million infected with HIV globally.  Out of a 6 billion+ population on this planet your talking LESS than one percent of the population.  

[Jcc1970]

Then your HIV hotline workers in your state better read up on HIV transmission.  Because for them to tell you that you had a risk with what you describe is STUNNING to me.

[Deekatz2302]

I called the hiv hotline in my state and they said this was a risk.

[nursegirl6572]

If you work in a dental office, you should be more knowledgeable about what constitutes an HIV risk and certainly you should know that 6 months is WAY outdated for testing.