Can you get hiv from something like this?
I was at a restaurant with a bunch of friends. This waitress girl was pouring me water, as I was taking the glass I noticed that she had a ripped hangnail on her finger. It looked red around the area which is what made me think it was blood that shape didn't change though out the night for the 3 hours I was there. It was still bright at the time so it should be easy to get a good look at her finger. I don't remember seeing anything wet on her finger. But at the time it felt like I was watching her finger as the she was handing it to like 15-30 seconds and panicked a bit. So I'm questioning what I saw more than normal. But feels like it was more of dark red on the nail area, and brownish after it goes past the nailbed at about 3-5mm.
Afterwards I looked at my glass of water, but didn't see any blood or redness on or in the glass. I also went to bathroom to wash my hands just in case. I remembered just before washing my hands to check for any blood on my hands and I didn't see any. So I washed with soap and water. Also it was about another 25 min after one of the late games came, and we probably ordered 5-10 minutes after that. So that would probably make it another 15 min before we got the pizza and after it was finished I was thirsty enough to get a drink of water. She was also serving us food and water. But it didn't seem like anyone noticed or were worried about it. Maybe that got a better look than I did? Also she was packing up pizza boxes next to other workers which I'd assume means that they'd be able to see her hands.
After looking at her finger a few more times from drinking water and getting it refilled. It looked like it was fairly smallish scab, maybe a few mm. And the red around the area makes me think it was a liquid burn since it looked very uneven and going around to the side of the finger. But the that burn looked like blood to me at first, and that set my mind off.
I mean it's like what if there was blood and never noticed it?
Hi
. It is clear that this situation worried you and it is good that you are seeking out reliable information. I need to note that we are not medical professionals and, for your protection, cannot provide medical advice over the internet. There are a lot of myths out there about HIV and, as noted in this article, one of the biggest is that it is easy to contract: https://h-i-v.net/myths-misconceptions. This article goes into further detail on how HIV is transmitted: https://h-i-v.net/transmission. I also want to note that the percentage of adults in the U.S. who are HIV positive is estimated at only 0.4% (see: https://www.verywellhealth.com/hiv-statistics-5088304), so the odds that a given person one encounters is HIV positive is pretty low. Of course the only way to be sure that one is not infected is testing, which is why the CDC recommends STI testing as a regular part of sexual health care. Hope this information is helpful. Best, Richard (Team Member)
