What happens if you rub two people's blood together?

Answer 1

If a drop of two people's blood was side by side on a piece of paper, then mixed together, there'd be no health risk.

However, if the two people made a cut on the skin and "mixed blood" by skin to skin, cut to cut, contact then there could be many minor and serious health risks. First, any break or cut in the skin can lead to infection. As well, the blood carries many minor and serious viruses and bacterial pathogens. If Person A rubbed their blood on or into Person B's cut skin, one or both persons could become ill from anything that the other person is carrying.

It is important to note that every person *can* carry various viruses and bacteria, but never become ill because that person's immune system has protected the person. But, when 2 people mix blood on an open cut, each person can become ill from whatever the other person carries.

Blood-borne infection is why health care workers wear gloves when a patient has any amount of blood coming from the body. Even a small cut on a health care worker's hand can become infected very quickly and easily by contact with someone's blood. And even if the cut person immediately washes the hands, infective agents are often much faster and have already begun the infection process.