About a man couldn't touch people, some kid of alien virus in his veins.

[warpigs330]

I read this book when I was a kid. I would say it was from the eighties most likely. it was about a man who couldn't touch people, if he did they would get hurt, or maybe die, I can't remember. There are vivid descriptions of him using a hook like device to rapidly and skillfully ride wires around a space station. I believe he had some alien material flowing through him, which was visible from the outside as extra oddly colored veins, that caused people to get hurt when he touched them. The human race in the book had not discovered any alien species before. I also remember that his space suit was very ragged and constantly needed patching up. In the end he finds that the substance running through his veins has some miraculous power.

Hope you can help.

 

[K. Riehl]

Could it be In the Company of Others by Julie Czerneda?

Humans are colonizing and encounter the Quill. The Quill are present in every living thing on the planet, when they try and enter human bodies it kills them. Humans retreat and leave the explorers behind on decaying space stations. The main character was a baby who cannot touch others because he is infected. He lives on the edge in the station avoiding physical contact. He does travel the exterior on cables and is pursued by government/corporations because he is the only survivor.
A very C.J. Cherryh style book.