>they swear, and I believe them, that a scrape from a railing, or a fall on the stairs can be all it takes to get an HIV infection. In fact, I assume that the

>they swear, and I believe them, that a scrape from a railing, or a fall on the stairs can be all it takes to get an HIV infection. In fact, I assume that the doctors and nurses there are worried about cuts or scrapes not because they think that can get HIV from the scrape itself (no known cases), but because they are often exposed to infected blood over the course of their work, and having an open cut or sore could increase their chances of becoming infected with HIV, HepB/C or other blood-born diseases. Even that type of caution is a little on the paranoid side. There have been few, if any, documented cases of HIV transmission to medical professional from patients that did not involve sharps incidents. My wife, and several close friends, worked for multiple years among people living with HIV/AIDS in W. Africa, and they know of no one who became infected with HIV via non-sexual transmission not involving infected sharps or other percutaneous medical devices (native Africans and expats alike).