Hi,
I wanted to bring to the attention of this forum accidental needlestick injuries and share my story with you all.

As a general practitioner, I am exposed to needlesticks several times per day and in my five years of practicing medicine, have never once had an accident or recieved an injury from a needlestick, that is until approximately four months ago.

I was walking through a street on my day off and decided to sit down and have a rest. Without looking I sat down on a bench and placed my
hand on the seat, feeling something sharp enter my hand. Worried, I looked under the seat to find that someone had somehow placed a needle stick filled with blood, so that the tip of the needle was pointing up from under the seat.

Even with all the medical knowledge I posses it was still an extremely difficult and worrying time waiting for the blood test results to return to my office.

Thankfully, I am clear of any form of hepatits and of hiv.

I have posted this message as one of encouragement for those of you out there who suspect or are worried that you may have contracted hiv or a form of hepatitis. Don't hesitate in seeing your doctor or if you are uncomfortable with visitng your regular doctor see another one.

I am unsure of the procedures in america, but here in australia the only people who know you are having a blood test for hiv are the doctor who ordered the blood test and the nurse who takes your blood. Once the blood is taken you are assigned an identification number. The results are returned to the doctor's office with an identification number. The doctor then matches up that identification number with the patient who had the examination. This therfore assures anonymity.

Thanks for listening.

Dr. Thomas blake