Need more info

[AnxiousNelly]

I don’t think I should be worried, but I wanted to double check since I don’t know that much about blood-borne diseases. Last week I went to the spa for a massage. I shaved my legs real quick in the sink before I left. All was fine. I had the massage and realized during the massage that I must have given myself razor burn, as my legs were stinging. Sure enough, when I got home, I could see a bunch of tiny little scabs from the razor burn. Could this have been any risk if the masseuse had any cuts on her hands while she was massaging my legs? And of course I couldn’t have told if she did, as the rooms are kept very dim and tranquil.

Or today when I went, I did pay attention, since my worry is on high alert and she did have a cut (like a bad papercut) on the top of one of her fingers (not on the palm side. It wasn’t actively bleeding but did look open and wet, definitely not scabbed. Would that be a risk? Or only with an actively and obviously bleeding wound? I don’t think I have any obvious wounds, but I do have some acne on my face where she was massaging my temples and it may not have been scabbed over, I know that I was picking at it prior to my appointment. I also know she was rubbing oil into her hands when I arrived, so would that like spread blood to her palms that could be a problem? I don’t know, I obviously need someone to teach me!

 I have been reading some of the other posts and it looks like maybe blood has to be “pushed” into a wound? I understand with a needle or something that is pushing in, but would massaging do the same thing? I’m so confused.

[Lynn K]

There have been no transmission in the manner you have described.

An open wound is open wet and bleeding even a recent paper cut that is not actively bleeding is not an open wound.

Even in the case of a health care worker who experiences a much more invasive accidental needle stick involving a patient with known hep c their odds of transmission is only 1.8% so yours would be so much less to approaching zero as you don’t know of the masseuse even has hep c which by the way the odds of randomly encountering someone with hep c is very low at less than 4% of the population with this odd decreasing daily as there ages now highly effective meds to test and cure hep c.

If you have more questions or continue to have concerns wait at least 12 weeks and see your personL physician and ask about the need for hep c antibody testing. Or consider getting g some counseling for anxiety if you find you often have fears about becoming infected with illnesses

https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/hcv/cfaq.htm

Best of luck