Im deep,past few days are very depressing for me.I have lot of questions going through my mind.pls,help me to clear it.
My uncle has hepatitis for last 3 years and he don’t know his current viral load,15 days ago I visited him in the local grounds, there when left my slippers to massage my foot as it was paining and my uncle was washing his hands nearby after eating his snacks.after 5 mins I returned to my home.when i was in home I noticed something like small wood splinter was pierced in my foot but I did not experienced any pain,so I just removed it.but,my doubt is if his hand washed water was splashed in my slippers and it made contact with my foot and in the same foot if wood splinter was pierced means can it transmit hepatitis to me?
And today was my moms birthday,so my uncle and our family members shared cake in our lawn,I don’t know how but there was a small 2-3mm stone in the cake,so,when I bites it my tooth felt pained I don’t know whether there was blood because of this but there was a pain around that teeth for some hours.now,im again depressing over the thought as we all shared the same cake maybe his saliva would have made contact with my pained teeth.
Pls,tell me if these things will transmit hepatitis to me.
Hi @Deep_Thash,
There is no risk in either case. HBV is transmitted when someone comes into contact with infected blood or some bodily fluids, such as semen. In the first instance, HBV is not transmitted through water, so even if your uncle splashed water on your slippers while washing his hands, that should not lead to any transmission.
To answer the second question, transmission through saliva is not a generally accepted mode of HBV transmission. In this case, I understand you bit into the stone, so if there is any blood, I guess it will be yours. The chances are less; a lot has to line up for a transmission through saliva to occur, and I don’t think those are present here. Some of us have shared a meal from the same bowl with our families and friends, and no one has been infected or exposed to HBV.
I recommend that you get tested and vaccinated if you have not done so already. That is the best way if you are worried about transmission.
In first senario,he ate with his hands so as he ate with his bare hands maybe his saliva will be in his hand and by washing it saliva along with the hand washed water splashed on my slippers and I wore that slipper and after 5 mins when I left that slipper and walked like only 5 steps ,a small wooden splinter punched my foot.so my foot made contact with hand washed water(which may contain his saliva) and a wood splinter punched my foot in 5 mins,so can that saliva enter my bloodstream and transmit hep b?maybe im thinking too much,I don’t know.but its making me depressed when I say these things to my family they think im thinking too much and gets irritated.
Sorry, hepatitis B is not transmitted the way you are thinking about this. It does not spread casully, for example sharing a meal from the same bowl, using the same bathroom, bed, or bedroom, laundry, kitchen, kissing, holding hands, hugging etc. I agree with your assessment that you are over thinking this.
Even if there’s saliva on his hands, there’s no evidence of blood in his saliva. Then washing his hands with soap and water should be strong to kill any virus on his hands. Imagine the number of people in the world who will be infected of hepatitis B spreads that way.
As mentioned previously, the best way to put you and your family members at ease is to get tested and vaccinated if you have all not done so already. I will encourage everyone to get tested and vaccinated as soon as possible. Please, be careful not to stigmatize your uncle because of his illness. It’s easy for our fears and feelings to get the best out of us at times. While he has hepatitis B, however, he is not a contagion.
Perhaps getting tested and immunized will put your mind at ease instead of overthinking about it. 90% of healthy adults recover from hepb infection and develop hepb antibody and protected for life.
One more thing,l have a similar incident in january around 14th,and around feb 15th I had muscle pain in leg and foot and in arm,headache,tiredness,one side jaw pain,nausea, stomach above belly button and just around the belly button but on different areas.these symptoms lasted around 1 week.thats all after 1 week till now I don’t have any of these symptoms.do u think these are symptoms of hepatitis?
It’s very hard to say, but the best thing to do would be to get tested. When you get tested, the results will be able to tell you a) if you have hepatitis B, b) if you’re immune to hepatitis B, and c) if you had hepatitis B in the past (and have recovered).
Thanks for your question and your fears are understandable if you haven’t heard about the ways that Hep B can and cannot be transmitted. I agree with the others that the risk of transmission in the cases you’ve described are negligible. It may be useful to read about how we have answered such questions in the past: