Urinal Contact?

Question

if urine came into contact with a wound that has a scab on it would be at risk of anything? or if it was a open wound would that make a diffrence? i heard urine is sterile and you cant get anything i would just like to confirm this.

Forgot to add this extra detail, this was not in a public bathroom.

Answer 1

Unless someone is having a urinary tract infection, urine IS free of bacteria when it leaves the body. The trouble is that urine is full of substances that various bacteria like to eat and as the urine exits the body, the stream can pick up bacteria off of the skin and carry them along. Thus, a pool of urine standing around won't remain sterile for very long - whatever bacteria it picked up from the skin and whatever bacteria it picked up from wherever it landed will soon be reproducing quite quickly.

So, if you put urine in an open wound, there is a small chance of bacterial infection showing up. This would be manifested by fever, chills, worsening pain, spreading redness, or pus. A scab, however, is pretty good protection so urine on a scabbed wound should be OK.

As for transmission of HIV (always in the back of people's minds nowadays), ordinary urine is thought to contain little or no HIV and thus not be a risk for infection. However, everyone always includes the caveat that if the urine contained blood, then HIV could be a possibility.