Hi,I am Dr. Shanthi.E (General & Family Physician). I will be looking into your question and guiding you through the process. Please write your question below.
I'm a 22 year old from Greece nurse, doing my internship in a fairly big hospital. Last Friday I was taking two syrignes with medicine to a man who was suffering with leukemia. He looks like a drug user. Anyways. I took the needles off the syrignes to give them to him through his vein catheter. The one lid of the three way was not closed properly so when I opened the three way, his hand got blood on it. I was wearing gloves of course and I wiped the blood off with a tissue. I was trying to fix something in the vein catheter but because I couldn't cut the tape with my hands I thought I could use the needles. I know big mistake which I faceslapped myself for later. I got the needle and I accidentally pricked myself. When I took off the glove there was no obvious wound on the finger but I didn't press my finger to see if it will bleed. After the accident I washed my hands with soap and chirodes and later at home burnt the area with a lighter. The needle was a 22g hollow one and used only to get the meds out of their containers. If the blood on tissue touched the needle or if I touched the blood on tissue with my glove but without getting blood on it, would the needle inject HIV or HCV to me? I'm being very anxious and waiting until I can take a 4gen test. I try to recall the accident again and again worrying if I missed a detail, something that could increase the risk. My hand feels numb very often and I am being aware of symptoms like fever, taking my temperature every day. Thanks in advance.