EMS4Life11

Blood did not get near my wounds and the wounds that I had were non bleeding ones that were if I can remember almost or fully scabbed over. That's why I was wondering if I could of spread the virus near my cuts because of the hand sanitizer.

Sorry, I'm not trying to be a dick. I'm just really annoyed how instead of people focusing on my question they focus on themselves and act like there the OSHA bloodborne police. I understand that i should have used gloves. It was an accident ( they happen ) and most of the time I use gloves on a call. I've had 1 exposure prior to this that I reported and was assessed for. All I wanted to know was if I was at risk of infection. Like I said in my narrative, The small ammount of blood ONLY touched my intact fingertips. The blood never was in direct contact with the cuts on top of my hand that were most likely scabbed over. The only reason I worried was thinking maybe by using a hand wipe I could have spread the virus near my cuts even though I used a seperate hand wipe to clean off the blood and then another to clean my whole hand.

ERDoc, here are some guidelines from the CDC website. Read Risk for Occupational Transmission of HCV. It clearly says in black and white Transmission rarely occurs from mucous membrane exposures to blood, and no transmission in HCP has been documented from intact or nonintact skin exposures to blood.

There is no need to wear gloves on every call. Do you wear gloves to touch door handles or shake a persons hand where maybe there was dried blood or infectious bodily fluid without you even seeing or knowing it was there? No you don't. You just wash your hands throughout the day. Its the same thing for patient care. Anyone can become a patient. Just because there riding in the ambulance dosn't mean there infected and need gloves to take a BP or pulse .etc. If there is visible contamination or the patient tells your they have something, by all means glove up and I do. As for my situation, I have been told by several doctors and nurses that my non intact skin proves no exposure to hep c. CDC and many other places show that non intact skin is not a risk for contracting hep c. It only becomes a risk when your non intact skin is repeatedly exposed to the virus. I don't know where you guys are getting your information from, but maybe you all can use a little bloodborne pathogen refresher. You don't need a body condom to be near people.

The other day while on a call I had touched blood accidentally without gloves ( blood that was somewhat dry ? like when you let it sit on your skin for a couple of minutes and it becomes harder to remove unless you scrub it off ). On the top of my hands I have a few scrapes ( non bleeding ones that are maybe 1-2 days old ). The blood only touched my finger tips where no cuts are. I immediately used a hand antiseptic wipe and hand sanitizer to rinse where blood was in contact and washed with soap and water when it became available. The hand sanitizer did sting a little where I have a few scrapes, but none where blood came into contact. Do you guys think I'm at risk for an exposure for anything like Hep C or HIV ? Our exposure policy says we should report incidents if we think we have been exposed, but I don't know if i should consider this an "exposure" being I wasn't stuck with a needle, mix my blood with the patients blood or anything like that. I'm a "little" concerned but I'm also somewhat of a germaphobe too so I don't know what to do.