

Researchers were able to confirm the source of the infection by comparing the genetic sequences of the two different strains of HIV in the hospital staff member and the patient receiving care. The patient was not on ART, before being admitted to the hospital. The case report said that, at the time of the accident, “he felt a droplet spill into his left eye, to which he reacted by blinking rapidly and not washing the eye.” The source of the infection-five weeks after it occurred-was traced back to a patient in the intensive care unit of the hospital, who received month-long care from the hospital following a severe traffic accident. There is one documented case of a person who acquired HIV, when working in a hospital laboratory, by accidently getting HIV-infected blood serum in their eye.

Risk associated with mucous membrane exposure, the authors say, “are likely to be substantially smaller.” And, this estimate is based on exposure to blood-not semen-which likely carries an even lower risk for transmission.Īnother study, by Henderson and colleagues, estimated that people who are exposed to HIV-infected blood at work, with needle sticks or other routes that go through the skin, have about a 0.3% risk of HIV infection per exposure. (In other words, HIV infection that happens through the mucous membranes that line the mouth and nose.) We can interpret their estimate to mean that 99.97% of the time you are exposed to an HIV-infected bodily fluid through a mucous membrane, you won’t become infected with HIV. A few studies have investigated this question by examining instances of documented occupational exposure to HIV (in other words, cases when doctors, nurses, researchers and others have been exposed to HIV-infected fluids at work).Ī review article by Evans and colleagues, published in 1999, estimated that the risk of HIV infection through mucocutaneous exposure to be 0.03% (1 in 2910). It’s difficult, though, because there are so few cases, overall.
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Researchers have tried to estimate the risk of HIV transmission through the eye, and other mucocutaneous pathways (e.g., the skin inside the nose and mouth). HIV transmission through the eye – what we know from research
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However, there isn’t a single case of a person getting infected with HIV published in a reputable medical journal because they got semen from an HIV-positive person in their eye.ĭo you need sexual health services-such as an HIV test, STI testing or treatment? Are you interested in learning more about the HIV-prevention strategy PrEP? Strut provides free sexual health care for gay, bisexual and transgender men who have sex with men in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since the 1990s, possible HIV transmissions through the ocular membrane have been suspected in several occupational exposures such as lab researchers and nurses. Theoretically, it is possible for someone to get infected with HIV through mucous membranes-including their eye. The chance you’re going to become infected with HIV from semen is really, really low. Make sure you cleanse the contact lenses with disinfecting solution before you put them back in.

Take out your contacts carefully, if you wear them, and don’t put them back in unless your eyes look and feel normal. Flush your eyes with some lukewarm water. But if not-clean up! Semen-like other things that don’t belong in our eyes-can cause irritation. It’s actually a question I’ve gotten from clients before at Magnet, the sexual health clinic of San Francisco AIDS Foundation, so you should know you’re not alone. You got cum in your eye and are wondering about what chance you have of getting HIV, or another sexually transmitted infection from someone else’s semen. You didn’t think much of it when it happened-but now you’re worried about that shot you took to the face. Maybe things got a little out of hand last night.
