An Alabama man with HIV was charged with felony assault last month after he was accused of spitting in an emergency room nurse’s face as the woman tried to treat him, police said.
Montrel Dewaun Minor, 28, of Aliceville, is charged with assault with bodily fluids, a felony charge because he has a communicable disease, jail records show. He was booked into the Tuscaloosa County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail.
Court records allege that Minor "became belligerent and combative and had to be physically restrained in order to receive the treatment" June 11 at Northport Medical Center, The Tuscaloosa News reported. Even while restrained, he was able to raise himself up enough on the gurney to spit in the nurse's face, the report said.
Minor's saliva came into contact with the woman's mouth and nose, the News reported.
He told the nurse to “taste the last kiss of death,” according to the court records. The records did not say why Minor was in the emergency room that day.
The nurse told investigators she immediately began decontamination procedures for HIV exposure and has thus far tested negative, the News said. She will again be tested six months after exposure.
The HIV virus cannot be transmitted through saliva, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can only be transmitted via the blood of an infected person, through unprotected sex or through breast milk.
The CDC estimates the risk of a health care worker being exposed to HIV on the job at less than 1 percent. The main risk is of being stuck with a needle that has already been used on a patient with the virus.
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