Sub. q stick from hep.c positive patient...

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I'm a fairly new nurse, I have only been working about 2 months, and last night I accidently got stuck by a lovenox needle from a hep. c postive patient, it barely pricked the skin, but it was enough to make it bleed, I'm so scared and nervous waiting on the results from the blood test, has this ever happened to anyone else, and if it did how did it turn out?

Isn't prophylactic HIV treatment supposed to start within hours of an exposure?

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Specializes in Med/Surg.
I posted on here about a month ago about getting a sub q needlestick from a hep c positive patient.. And come to find out about a week later after they did her blood test, they informed me that she also has HIV. My question is should they have started me on prophylactic HIV meds even though it wasn't a known source? It's really freaking me out...

Answered, but I'll reiterate:

Depends on facility policy. You'll have your own first set of results within six weeks. Starting prophylaxis before then, IMO only, wouldn't yield much difference. BUT IT DEPENDS ON YOUR FACILITY, which may not recommend prophylaxis (apparently they didn't) based on the scarce odds that transmission could have occurred.

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Depends on facility policy. You'll have your own first set of results within six weeks. Starting prophylaxis before then, IMO only, wouldn't yield much difference. BUT IT DEPENDS ON YOUR FACILITY, which may not recommend prophylaxis (apparently they didn't) based on the scarce odds that transmission could have occurred.

The point of prophylaxis is to prevent seroconversion from occuring. According to the UN's HIV/AIDS website, post-exposure prophylaxis is not effective if given after 72 hours of the exposure: http://www.unaids.org/en/AboutUNAIDS/PolicyAndPractice/Prevention/HIVPEP/default.asp

If they didn't start her on prophylaxis right after the incident, the really wouldn't be a point to start it after 6 weeks.

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