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I accidentally sat on a pin in public and now I am freaking out, pleas
Male, 21 years old. I don't smoke nor I have any other habits that can be considered bad.
We came to a café with my friends and after a little while sitting on the chair I noticed some slight painful sensation below my thigh. Then I noticed there was a pin on the chair.
Growing up I have heard lots of stories about people leaving HIV contaminated pins/needles on the cinema chairs so that people would sit on them and get infected with the virus. What if this is one of the cases? I immediately took the pin out of the chair and checked if it contained any blood stains on it but it did not (from what I saw). I live in a country where HIV is not considered an epidemic. In my country, it is also pretty common to wear headscarves for religious purposes so my friends thought the pin probably dropped from a women's headscarf priorly. I am still at the cafe but pretty sure they are not gonna share the video footages of the security cameras with me so I can't really know if it's a case of sabotage or not.
If I apply to the ER, they might think I am crazy so in this case I really don't know what to do.
Should I see an Infectious Disease Specialist and ask to get prescribed PEP? Please help me I am so freaked out rn
(I am attaching below a representative picture of what the pin that pricked me looked like)
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Hello @aykut Our world is a scary place, isn’t it? When a simple thing like a possibly lost pin from headwear suddenly conjures up thought of a nefarious action of sabotage to spread disease to another person. I think it’s becoming more common for our minds to lead us in that direction when the simple truth is, that those actions are exceptions to the norm.
I sincerely expect in this case, since you mentioned it’s very frequent for women to wear headscarves and secured with this type of pin, that this is exactly that…a pin that has come loose and not placed there intentionally.
What you can do is just watch the site for a few days to make sure it doesn’t look infected. But I suspect it will be just a little break in the skin and nothing to worry about in the future. Did the pin break the skin and bleed very much?
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6 ReactionsHey!! I deeply appreciate your kind words, thank you for trying to relieve me with a very caarefully written text. Such wise words you chose up there, I really am grateful for them.
Family members and nearly all of my friends told me stuff like you did up there. They think getting checked by a doctor isn't even needed in that case. What would you think 'bout it?
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2 ReactionsHi, @aykut, I know this is really causing you a great deal of stress but I think your friends and family are right. Quite honestly I’d try to forget about the incident. Tainted pins planted deliberately is more of an urban legend than fact.
Coming from a medical perspective, in most instances HIV can’t live outside the body very long. In a situation of a pin lying on a cushion for who knows how long, the odds of it being able to transmit the disease would be remote.
Syringes would be a different story because they are hollow and can contain blood serum and virus if used previously.
But this is a stainless steel dressmaker pin and it was clean when you examined it. Blood dries quickly on surfaces so there would have been some evidence of blood on the pin for you to see. I have some experience in blood born pathogens. I was the infection control coordinator in the dental practice where I worked for several decades. I am very confident when I tell you that the transmission of AIDS from this pin would be very remote. There is no need to be checked by a doctor.
So I hope you can exhale a sigh of relief and put this stressor behind you. 🙂
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