Barbers Join the Hepatitis Prevention Drive

Do you always make sure if your barber or beautician is using a fresh new blade each time you go to the salon or parlour for your hair-cut, pedicure or waxing,?
Shaving or piercing of the body with re-used sharp instruments help Hepatitis B and C viruses to spread from one host to another and maintain their unrelenting presence in the community.
Pamela Anderson, the Hollywood actress of ‘Bay watch’ fame became the most famous international poster girl for Hepatitis C when she contracted the infection from her then-boyfriend by sharing a needle for a tattoo.
These viruses are normally present in body secretions, serum or blood of infected individuals and are highly infective. Up to a million of these viruses could be present on a needle tip.
Skin piercing allows small amounts of serum to come in contact with the needle. If the needle is not cleaned properly and re-used in another person, there is a high chance of transmitting an infection such as hepatitis B from an infected person to a new host.
A family of 3 brothers was shocked and surprised when they had tested positive for Hepatitis B during a free screening camp last year. After delving deep into their history for possible sources of infection, we discovered that the three had visited a village fair together and got tattooed at the same stall with the same needle on that occasion.
What has intrigued medical scientists is how the hepatitis B and C viruses keep spreading in the community and maintain their prevalence of 4%. Most of those who test positive, do not have history of blood transfusion or surgery, suggesting that some other route must be at play. The missing link in the puzzle could be the re-used blades and needles that barbers and beauticians use.
HOPE Initiative kicked off a unique campaign last week by inviting 90 barbers to a seminar and discussing with them how some of their practices could be inadvertently spreading these viral infections to their clients. They took surprisingly keen interest in learning about these bugs and seemed quite willing to use fresh new blades for each client.
The challenge now is to reach out to all barbers in the country and encourage them to modify their practice, and on clients such as you to insist that your barber or beautician uses new sharps each time when you visit them.