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Misc Injecting and hepatitis/other diseases

C

casualdruguser

Greenlighter
Joined
May 7, 2015
Messages
32
Lets say i accidentally stab myself with a needle used by someone with hepatitis or some other disease. The needle was not cleaned or anything afterwards.

Am i automatically going to have that disease? Assuming that i did not inject using the needle i simply accidentally stabbed myself with it, does that mean the disease is automatically and guaranteed to have been transferred to me? Or is it possible that i could have got away with it?

Also - would it make any difference if the needle had been left to sit for a day or two? Is dried out blood harder to transfer diseases with or would it make no difference whether i stabbed myself the second they removed the needle as opposed to stabbing myself 2 days later?
 
Well, if it's any consolation, the HIV virus can't survive outside the human body for long at all. It's lifespan on a syringe is pretty brief, I'd imagine.

I just did a quick search on hepatitis, apparently that one can survive outside the human body for quite some time.
 
Think about it, everyone knows their own personal experiences about what risky behaviors they have or have not done and what diseases they have provided they get tested for it and everyone knows what the scientific community has to say about risk factors for disease transmission of certain diseases, but no one--not even the scientists--know exactly how long you can stab yourself with a diseased needle or whatever specific scenario you have come up with, because it would be unethical to conduct an experiment to find out for sure exactly or not. Just as no one knows the LD50 ("lethal dose 50%") for any drug in humans because, unless you are a Nazi or WW2 Japanese scientist, you are not allowed to conduct the necessary experiments to determine it, as doing so would involve a good many people dying in the process and is thus judged unethical.

However, I will say that shooting up old blood is a terrible idea, as the fresh blood dies inside the syringe just like it would in a cadaver after a day at the latest. Also, I have noticed that tons of my friends in rehab contracted Hepatitis C through sharing needles, a good bit more than seemed to get HIV, which is generally best transmitted through semen in the butthole as far as I can tell (and I'm a gay man, so I'm allowed to say that). Finally, the most common way to get Hep B is to lick asshole. That is all.
 
Dresden; I appreciate your response but i think you're getting carried away. I am talking about an accidental stabbing from a used needle. I am not conducting a scientific experiment on whether you can stick yourself with an infected needle and not get infected.

In the same vein (so to speak) - i am also not advocating the re-use of needles, especially those with dried blood on them. I am simply asking if anyone has any idea whether the chance of contracting infectious diseases is mitigated if the person in question accidentally stabs themselves as opposed to full blown injecting using an infected needle - or whether one accidental prick from a hepatitis infected needle and boom that's it you're 100% guaranteed to have contracted hepatitis.
 
it also kind of depends on the infectious agen, as Burnt Offerings said, HIV does not last long outside of the human body, Hepatitis C however can stick around for around two weeks in water I believe. I got hepatitis C from fucking up and accidentally using a friends needle one time- I know this because at the time he was the only friend that I knew who had hepatitis C that I got high with and I tested positive for the anti-bodies before I began using frequently with users who all had hepatitis C.

It's also important that if you were to get infected with Hepatitis C, to not just say fuck it, and share needles with all your other Hepatitis C positive friends as there are multiple strands, and you don't want that. I didn't know this, and as I was homeless with a very 'fuck it' attitude me and my friends often would just pass around a single syringe, or pick them up off the ground in our tents, we all were 'pretty sure we were HIV-' so we thought that was fine and dandy (thank god I am still HIV-) but after two years my liver is already enlarged...I feel horrible even sharing this embarrassing information, I knew better really, but it just goes to show how low you can get when you're down and out. I've seen people picking up syringes off the floors of a shooting gallery, drawing some water up to 'clean it out', and then fix themselves up. It's shit like this that makes me think heroin addiction is truly a disease in and of itself, if not some kind of vicious mental disorder because it will make you act out completely of your better judgement. I was a fucking moderator on this forum a few years ago, and all of a sudden I'm shooting into my deep femoral vein with the same needle I've been sharing with a friend for the last two weeks because we just 'can't get it together to get to the exchange and neither of us have an ID to go to CVS' (which I think is pure fucking evil-I've exchanged some really nasty words with pharmacy texts).
 
To answer your question it is not guaranteed 100% that you will be infected from any of the chance scenarios' you used as examples.
 
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