 There are potential health hazards in wound licking due to infection risk, especially in immunocompromised patients.Human saliva contains a wide variety of bacteria that are harmless in the mouth, but that may cause significant infection if introduced into a wound.A notable case was a diabetic man who licked his bleeding thumb following a minor bicycle accident, and subsequently had to have the thumb amputated after it became infected with "Eikenella corrodens" from his saliva.