Patient With AIDS, Hep C Arrested For Biting Medical Tech

[NaturalHigh]

TULSA, Oklahoma -
A Tulsa man who is HIV positive was transferred from the hospital to jail after police say he bit a medical technician Friday night.

Darin Lee Bunch, 40, was booked on complaints of knowingly spreading AIDS and aggravated assault and battery on a health care worker.

Officers say Bunch was a patient at St. John Hospital when he bit a med tech at about 10:30 p.m.

Hospital security restrained Bunch and told him he may have spread AIDS. Bunch reportedly replied, "I don't give a s**t," the report states.

http://www.newson6.com/story/26120698/patient-with-aids-hep-c-arrested-for-biting-tulsa-medical-tech


The story also says the wound was "deep and bleeding." I hope this lady is okay.

[philip.chinery]

1. You'd think by now that the AIDS hysteria would be over...

but of course the Republicans keep going with it.

[NaturalHigh]

2. Huh?

I don't think this is a case of hysteria. If someone is bitten by a patient that it HIV-positive and Hepatitis C-positive, that's pretty frightening.

[closeupready]

3. What is the actual risk of transmission here? Was his intent to defend himself,

or was it - as Oklahoma authorities allege - to "knowingly spreading AIDS"??

>>Officers say Bunch was a patient at St. John Hospital when he bit a med tech at about 10:30 p.m.

"The technician was trying to have the suspect not pull his heart monitor out," the arresting officer said in his report. "When she reached over him to check the tube, the suspect learned forward and bit the tech on the right forearm."<<

'was trying to have the suspect not pull his heart monitor out' -- what the fuck does that even mean? Is English a second language in Tulsa? And more specifically, was he in pain maybe, i.e., did the heart monitor give him discomfort?

Lots of what the fuck about this story.

[NaturalHigh]

4. Actual risk? Pretty low.

Unfortunately, not zero. As for your other questions, I don't know.

[closeupready]

5. Well I hope she's okay.

Thanks for the thread.

[NaturalHigh]

6. Me too...

and you're welcome. If I happen to see a follow-up story on local media, I'll update.

[Avalux]

7. It is 2014 or 1985? HIV cannot be transmitted through saliva.

If Mr. Bunch had bleeding sores in his mouth and a lot of his blood got into the wound he made when he bit her, maybe. Hep C is much easier to get in this scenario. He wasn't "knowingly spreading AIDS" - this is one of the most ignorant stories about HIV infection I've seen in awhile.

[Gravitycollapse]

8. HIV can theoretically be transmitted through saliva although it is incredibly rare.

However, this risk is probably increased when the saliva enters an open wound.

[Avalux]

9. So which is it? Is it theoretical or are there rare documented cases? n/t

[Gravitycollapse]

10. I'm not sure if there have been documented cases.

But saliva contains a non-negligible quantity of the virus. This has the potential to cause transmission if it is exposed to certain parts of the body like, for instance, an open wound.

[Avalux]

11. Please stop.

I was immersed in HIV research from 1988 to 2007. There isn't enough virus in saliva for transmission to occur, even if it gets in an open wound. Blood yes, saliva no.

[LisaL]

12. He bit her. She was bleeding.

If he has any bleeding from his gums, how do you know that his blood didn't get into her open wound?
Here is an actual case where HIV was apparently transmitted through a bite.

"The cause of the child's infection is believed to be a direct result of the bite from her father."

http://journals.lww.com/aidsonline/fulltext/2006/02280/human_bites__a_rare_risk_factor_for_hiv.21.aspx

[Avalux]

13. See my post #7. n/t

[LisaL]

14. He could have spread AIDS.

There are documented cases of HIV transmitted through biting.
http://journals.lww.com/aidsonline/fulltext/2006/02280/human_bites__a_rare_risk_factor_for_hiv.21.aspx

[Avalux]

16. First - HIV infection, not AIDS.

Second - in the cases described in that publication, infected blood was present and the biters had extremely high concentrations of HIV in their blood (end stage disease).

We know nothing of the HIV status of the patient in this article, and do not know if his mouth was bleeding or had sores. It's irresponsible to write an article like this.

[DRoseDARs]

17. Armchair doctors arguing w/some1 who researched HIV for 20yrs...

It's quite the sight.

[REP]

18. More irresponsible to bite someone when infected with HIV and Hep C

Absent either virus, human bite wounds are incredibly nasty; about the worst bite to receive from an infection standpoint. Throw in HIV and Hep c into the mix - the risk if transmission from a bite deep enough to cause bleeding is greater than zero for either one - and that's a trifecta of assholery.

I don't know about you, but I don't care how low the risk is, I'd just rather not be bitten by someone with HIV and/or Hep C. I very much doubt some douchenozzle who tries to extubate himself knows what the risk is, and that he was hoping he'd pass his infections on.

[Gravitycollapse]

15. If saliva contains about 1/3 the quantity by volume of the virus compared to semen...

That is a small amount but not a totally negligible one.

If you're kissing someone who is HIV positive, the risk of transmission is almost non-existent. However, if you are placing HIV infected saliva directly into contact with the blood stream, through an open wound, the risk goes up. By how much, I'm not sure.

Even if the risk is incredibly low, as the risk of transmission is still very low through conventional means, the act of deeply biting someone when you're HIV positive is still a pretty fucked up thing to do. Even if it will almost certainly amount to nothing more than psychological trauma.