hello Dr Conway.

I got bitten in the arm and my skin was broken and the wound eventually bled. As far as I know the person (of unknown status) did not have blood in his mouth. I do believe that sticking with the 6 month rule for every exposure to reassure patients that they are negative (in terms of hep B hep C and HIV) is unfair cosidering exposures very in their severity. What i mean is that if someone is cleared at 6 months for having unprotected anal sex with someone who is known to be HIV positive - isn't it fair to say someone is clear at 3 months for such a low risk situation as mine? My formal question is then: for my risk exposure do you think my test at three months is conclusive for those three lovely diseases I mentioned above. thank you so much

I would agree that if you were negative for all 3 viruses at 3 months, I would conclude that the exposure did not result in transmission of any of them. It is also important to have a baseline test to make sure that you were not previously infected, to be able to track spread and transmission of these pathogens, and to help us understand where and when people are becoming infected.