Since 1985, the World Health Organization has been testing donors blood for HIV and other blood illnesses like Hep C. That is why you don't hear of people getting infected through blood transfusions anymore.

For the part of your question, unless two fresh wounds are squeezed together, infection will not occur. When bleeding, we bleed out, nothing can go into the body during the bleeding.

When the skin is broken, it starts to heal right away forming a barrier so that nothing gets into the bloodstream.

Also remember, HIV dies 30 seconds to a minute after it hits the air.

All the best
Muthoni (Mson)

Thank you so much for your reply. This is the exact information I was looking for.

The only reason I asked was because I had gotten blood from a blood bank on me at work. I had a couple nicks, not even sure they came in contact with the blood. Apparently this warranted testing at my facility and I have been driving myself nuts ever since. I have been trying to find information about documented cases of HIV being contracted from 'non-intact' skin. With chapped non-bleeding hands, and a couple paper cut size nicks -- is the testing realistic? I was standing next to a sink right when it happened and I washed it off immediately. The nurse asked me "does it burn the cuts when you put alcohol on them?" and yeah, it kind of did. So the testing began! Would you have just washed off the blood and gone about your way? And I know that there is an extreme unlikelihood of a bag of blood even having HIV, but there is still a CHANCE. Perhaps they had me go through with the testing because of the theoretical risk?