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HIV 101: I'm Poz,if I’m Bleeding Should I Worry About Someone Helping Me?

HIV 101: I'm Poz,if I’m Bleeding Should I Worry About Someone Helping Me?

if I’m Bleeding Should I Worry About Someone Helping Me

Everyone has questions when they find out they are positive. In this series of posts, here are several of the most common, plus straightforward answers to help you navigate this new life of yours.

 

This probably depends on the situation, but often the answer is no. HIV is rarely transmitted in a household between family members (outside of sex and IV drug use, of course). And, if, for example, you got hurt playing football or duking it out at the gym, it’s “highly unlikely that HIV transmission could occur in this manner,” according to the University of Rochester Medical Center’s website. “The external contact with blood that might occur in a sports injury is very different from direct entry of blood into the bloodstream which occurs from sharing needles.” The same goes for blood on a Band-Aid or a nosebleed or a cut finger, says Lisa B. Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH, an associate professor of medicine in the Department of Infectious Diseases, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and an expert for TheBody.com. “There is no risk of getting HIV from blood that has been sitting outside of a human body. Even if the [person bleeding] was infected, HIV begins to die once it leaves the body and becomes unable to infect anyone else.”

One caveat: If you’ve been in a serious auto or other accident, the emergency medical techs who are helping you should be using universal precautions, but it’s always good for your own health to tell them you’re HIV-positive. (It’s illegal for health workers to refuse you care based on your status, per the federal Americans With Disabilities Act.)

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Diane Anderson-Minshall

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