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Q: HIV and helping homeless - is there a risk that I could have con
asked by: DoctorQuestion on September 1st, 2007
I was recently (yesterday) on the metro/train. An apparently drunk homeless women (with sadly poor personal hygiene) got on the train, and as the train left the station, she fell to the floor. I went to help her up, and offered my hand as support to lift her up, but as I did so, I noticed medical gauze with a bloodstain on her wrist area. I did my best to avoid the area as I pulled her up, and washed my hands and arms carefully within 20 minutes of the incident. There were no traces of (visible) blood on my hand or arm, and I have no open cuts, scrapes, sores or scabs on my arm. If she herself had HIV, is there a risk that I could have contracted it? My understanding is that blood to blood contact is the easiest way for HIV to spread, and this worries me, even though I don't think I touched any of her blood, and I had no cuts on my own arm...


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Dr. Nikola Gjuzelov , MD
replied on November 29th, 2007
HIV and AIDS Answer A3357
If you didn’t touch the woman's blood or even if you touched it with intact skin, there is no risk of getting an HIV-infection.




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