Sometimes on this forum there are questions relating to a medical person not following universal precautions or not disclosing their hiv status and then working as a surgical tech or something like that. Or there have occasionally been people who have absolutely no idea how they got infected. Honestly, it makes me nervous because I don't want to be infected from having a procedure done. Can you please tell the statistics of anyone who has been infected by their health care provider or a procedure? It seems like there are possible scenarios of things like this happening even though questions are answered like it doesn't really happen. thanks for your time

Thanks for your question,

Getting HIV from visiting a medical setting is incredibly unlikely. This is why we, as you say, answer question like it doesn't really happen. This is also why we don't see statistics reporting this, because it's so incredibly unlikely.

There are "universal precautions" that are observed in ALL medical settings - the precautions are procedures that medical staff need to follow to keep you and them healthy.

I understand that you may be nervous because of the "what if they don't follow these procedures" feeling. But remember, HIV is generally a hard virus to get or give. We literally need HIV positive body fluid to come out of someone's body and go directly/immediately into another person's body. This won't happen from using the same cotton ball on two people, dropping a utensil on the ground, or forgetting to wash your hands. It just won't.

If these things were risky, tons of people would be getting infected everyday.. this is most certainly not the case.