Syringe victim unlikely to contract HIV: Health Department

The Health Department of WA says there is a very slim chance a 55-year-old man stabbed with a syringe near the Midland train station has contracted HIV.

The victim was told 'welcome to the world of HIV' when he was stabbed in the shoulder by a man he refused to give money to.

The Department's Director of Communicable Disease Control Paul Van Buynder says there has never been a case in WA of a person contracting the virus after being attacked by someone with a syringe.

"There was one health care worker in the last 25 years while we've been monitoring this that did sustain a needle stick injury with a known HIV positive patient and that patient did seroconvert despite taking medication at the time, but that's the only case in the last 25 years in Western Australia," he said.

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