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Q: Possibility of contracting HIV
asked by: DoctorQuestion on December 30th, 2008
Hi a few days back I asked a question. Here is a link to that
http://ehealthforum.com/health/survivabili ty-of-hiv-virus-outside-the-body-t161928.h tml
The response to my question was "The possibility that you were infected is very small. However, it can not be excluded completely. Just to be sure, you might want to do an HIV test 3 months after the possible exposure. "

Now this has got me worried and scared. I am not from USA and the place where I come, it is 'mentally' a very painful thing to get tested for HIV. That being said I would prefer to test if there was any risk.
I would like to say that the cuts on my ear were very small. I mean they were slightly more than scratches. The skin was broken and it hurt, however, blood was not dripping out of them. Also, there was approximately a 5 min gap between my friend removing the helmet and mine using it.
I must confess that I went to another forum to seek advice. Everyone there felt that this was a no risk situation.


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Dr. Goce Aleksovski , MD
replied on January 1st, 2009
HIV and AIDS Answer A5226


Given the additional data you provided, the chances for infection are close to zero, almost none. The gap of 5 minutes and the lack of blood make the transmission almost impossible. However, you can be 100% sure only if you do HIV tests.




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