A 4-year old has had an HIV test and Mum now has an anxious 3-6 month wait for clearance after stepping on and being struck by a discarded needle in Bristol.

The child was pricked with the needle through her Converse trainers, and had to pull it out of her foot where it was embedded.

She had been on her way to the At-Bristol science museum with her mum and a friend when it happened.

Mum now has to wait three months to find out if her daughter contracted HIV or Hepatitis C. She said her ‘blood ran cold’ when her daughter said ‘Mummy, I’ve hurt myself’ and showed her the needle.

The horrified mum, of Easton, Bristol, said: ‘There was broken glass everywhere, that was the first thing I saw.

‘I said, ‘show me what pricked you?’ and she pointed to a hypodermic needle and said ‘it pricked me in the foot and I pulled it out.’ ‘My blood ran cold. I almost couldn’t breathe – I went into panic mode. I assumed the worst.

She took her daughter to Bristol Children’s Hospital where, after consulting with a virologist, a doctor gave Tamara a shot for Hepatitis B and took a blood sample.

The blood will not be tested but kept on record as a ‘reference sample’.

It is to Mum’s huge credit that she is now calling for safe drug use rooms to be built in Bristol. That will help deal with this now ever-present problem in a constructive way, contributing to improved safety for all rather than driving it further underground.