Question:

Ok, I am really paranoid here. I lived in a house with someone with HIV for a few weeks and may have accidently used his toothbrush a few times. I also masturbated shortly after he would leave the room after playing video games, so we both handled the same objects. Also, a group of us were in a rental car and my finger hit a box. I glimpsed the box and it said something about HIV on it but everyone was to scared to open the glove compartment back up and look. I developed a cold when I got home but my father said it was from the plane ride. It has been five years and I had a minor case of shingles. Should I get tested for HIV?

Answer provided by:

Octavio Vallejo, M.D., MPH
Faculty, UCLA Pacific AIDS Education and Training Center

According to the situations you've described, these are not ways to get the HIV infection. HIV is transmitted in the following ways:1) unprotected sexual intercourse with a person living with HIV (male or female), 2) contact with contaminated blood (sharing needles and blood transfusion) and 3) from perinatal transmision (mother-to-child) and breast feeding. I would strongly recommend you to attend a HIV 101 seminar in a local AIDS organization and learn more about this epidemic that has been with us for the last 25 years. If you are sexually active and have had unprotected sex with people who you are not aware of their HIV status, I strongly recommend to take the HIV test and have regular tests at least once a year and always, always practice safe sex or abstinence.
Thanks for your question,
--O.V.

070122
ASKD070112

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