getting aids from acupuncture needles someone wrote in expressing concern about getting aids from acupuncture needles unless your friend is sharing fluids with their acupuncturist who themselves has aids it is unlikely not impossible they will get aids from acupuncture needles generally even if accidently inoculated the normal immune response should be enough to effectively handle the minimal contaminant involved with acupuncture needle insertion most acupuncturists use disposable needles use once and throw away they do this because you are not the only one concerned about transmission of diseases via this route so it s good business to advertise disposable needlesused here these needles tend to be of a lower quality however being poorly manufactured and too sharp in my opinion they tend to snag bloodvessels on insertion compared to higher quality needles if i choose to use acupuncture for a given complaint that patient will get their own set of new needles which are sterilized between treatments the risk here for hepatitis hiv etc transmission is that i could mistakenly use an infected persons needles accidently on the wrong patient but clear labelling and paying attention all but eliminates this risk better quality needles tend to slide past vessels and nerves avoiding unpleasant painful snags and hematomas so i use them acupuncture needles come in many lengths and thicknesses but they are all solid when compared to their injection style cousins in china herbal solutionsand western pharmaceuticals are occasionally injected into meridian points purported to have tcm physiologic effects and so require the same hollow needles used for injecting fluid medicine this means thinkingtiny that a samll amount of tissue the diameter of the needle bore will be injected into the body as it would be in a typical shot when the skin is puntured on the other hand when the solid acupuncture needle is inserted the skin tends to squeeze the needle from the tip to the level of insertion such that any cooties that haven t been schmeared away with alcohol before insertion tend to remain on the surface of the skin minimizing invasion from the exterior of course in tcm the body s exterior is protected by the wei protective qi so infection is unlikely or in other words there is a normal inflammatory and immune response that accompanies tissue damage incurred at the puncture site while i m fairly certain your friend will not have a transferable disease transmitted to them via acupuncture needle insertion i would like to know for what complaint they have consulted the acupuncturist not to know if it would be harmful but to know if it would be helpful john badanes dc ca romdas uclink berkeley edu
