Hello doctor,

I am a Physician's assistant and I was exposed to HIV positive blood from a patient. A nurse had mishandled a butterfly needle and it sprayed her and me with the blood of this patient. The patient has AIDS and obviously has a high viral load. She received the bulk of the spray and is on PEP because blood entered her eyes. The blood was mostly on my hands. The doctor assured me that he felt that neither testing nor PEP was necessary. What scares me is that I had a recent scrape which exposed a pinkish area. The area might have oozed a little bit of clear fluid a few minutes before the accident. I am worried that the expert was a bit too liberal in my case. The scrape/pinkish area was exposed to blood. Do you are with the expert?

Thanks,

Hi,

I agree with the infectious disease (ID) specialist that your risk is negligible at best. However, I would have suggested or at least offered routine HIV screening for this extremely low-risk occupational exposure. Talk to the ID doctor and ask for routine screening if you remain worried. I'm quite confident it will be negative.

Good luck.

Dr. Bob