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Post HIV EXPOSURE prophylaxis

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HIV AND "post-exposure prophylaxis"

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CDC 2025 HIV nonoccupational post exposure prophylaxis PEP 72 hours 28 days

HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is emergency antiretroviral treatment that can prevent HIV after a possible exposure.
  • Start immediately. It works best within 24 hours and should be started no later than 72 hours after the exposure. Do not wait for the other person’s test result. CDC 2025 PEP guidance and Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine both advise starting as early as possible.
  • It is usually taken for 28 days and must be prescribed by a clinician.
  • Go now to an emergency department, sexual-health/HIV clinic, urgent-care center, or occupational-health service. If this occurred at work, report it immediately.
  • PEP is considered for a substantial-risk exposure, such as condomless vaginal/anal sex with a person who has HIV or whose HIV status is unknown, sharing injection equipment, or a needlestick/blood splash involving mucosa or broken skin.
  • A baseline HIV test and tests for other infections are done, but testing must not delay starting PEP when the exposure is high risk.
  • Follow-up HIV testing is typically arranged at about 4-6 weeks and 12 weeks after starting PEP. If exposures may recur, ask to transition to PrEP, which is prevention taken before exposure.
If it has been more than 72 hours, PEP is generally not recommended, but seek care promptly for HIV testing, STI testing, hepatitis B assessment, and discussion of PrEP.
If you tell me when the exposure happened, what type of exposure it was, and whether the source is known to have HIV or is on effective treatment, I can help you judge how urgently PEP is indicated.

Blood splashed while putting ICD tube , blood spoiled on specs , not sure whether eye is involved or not

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HIV AND occupational exposure

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CDC occupational HIV exposure blood splash eye mucous membrane immediate irrigation PEP 72 hours

Treat this as a possible mucous-membrane exposure until confirmed otherwise.
  1. Immediately irrigate both eyes with clean running water or normal saline for several minutes. Remove contact lenses if present. Do not use irritants or scrub the eyes.
  2. Report it now to your hospital occupational-health / infection-control / emergency department. Document the time and exposure details.
  3. Because blood landed on your spectacles and you cannot rule out an eye splash, you need an urgent occupational PEP assessment. If the exposure was within 72 hours, do not wait for the source patient's HIV test result before seeking PEP. PEP is most effective when begun as soon as possible.
  4. Have the source patient's HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C status checked per hospital protocol. Your own baseline HIV test, hepatitis B immunity status, and follow-up testing will also be arranged.
  5. If you were wearing spectacles, they likely reduced the chance of eye contact, but they are not a sealed barrier. Blood only on intact skin has no HIV transmission risk. Risk exists if blood reached the eye, mouth, nose, broken skin, or there was a sharps injury.
For a confirmed mucous-membrane splash from HIV-positive blood, the average historical HIV transmission risk is about 0.09%, and it is lower when the source has confirmed sustained viral suppression. The 2025 US occupational-exposure guideline recommends urgent evaluation; the PEP Quick Guide specifically advises eye irrigation with water, saline, or sterile irrigant.
Do not self-start or delay based on uncertainty. Go to occupational health/ER now, especially if this happened today.
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