Nancy,

I've read some of your answers and think you do a great job in your responses. My situation is I work in a mental health/chemical dependency hospital and have two exposed deep blisters (About an inch in length) across my finger. The top layer of skin had already peeled off and I did not have it bandaged up while at work. If a fellow employee for instance had hiv, would I be able to contract it from turning the same doorknob as they did seconds later if they had bled onto it for some reason? I ask because once I turned it and my skin broke? Concerned at work every day...please ease my mind..

Please, please take yourself to the transmission section of this site and put your own mind at ease! Doorknobs are completely unrelated to HIV transmission. Completely.

But traces of someone else's blood left on a doorknob could come into contact with your open skin and expose you to hepatitis B, so get that blister bandaged, please! It's a break in your usual germ defense, so it needs to be covered.