I was stuck by an HIV+ needle in the beginning of my third year. Hollow bore, 23 guage butterfly needle from drawing blood on a patient with an absurd viral load and a CD4 count of 7. Despite 6 weeks of antiretroviral therapy, and 6 months of personal turmoil, I'm still going into a field where blood exposure is a basic element. Here are some of the facts I researched rather extensively during that time period.
The chances of contracting HIV from a single unprotected sexual contact are 30/1000 for male-female transmission, and 15/1000 for female-male transmission. The chances of contracting HIV from a hollow bore needle that penetrates the skin deeply from a patient with a moderate viral load, are 3/1000. Granted if you're one of those three, your chances are then 100%. Prophylactic double agent therapy is thought to reduce your risk of contracting the virus by 75%. There has never yet been a reported case of HIV being contracted via a suture needle stick, which is unfortunately all too common. Nor has there been a case reported regarding HIV transmission from a knife blade penetrating the gloves and skin. A single pair of gloves decreases your chances of HIV transmission 50%. Double gloving decreases chances substantially more to 75%. Surprisingly, there isn't a case yet where a surgeon has contracted HIV from a patient (though his assistants have), though there are two cases where a patient contracted the virus from the operating surgeon. (Details weren't given.) Unfortunately, too many needlesticks and injuries go unreported, but that might simply indicate that the odds are even better than what is expected.
HepC is a worse story, unfortunately, as it takes a smaller viral load to infect an individual. And no prophylactic therapy other than prayer exists, so there's no reassuring advice on that one!
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