Hepatitis B Danger in Nail Salons

That manicure (or pedicure) can be dangerous to your health. This January, Ivanhoe Newswire reported that according to a recent study salon customers are at risk of contracting hepatitis B, a chronic liver infection that could be fatal, and aren’t even aware of it. The new study highlights the unique risk confronting salon clients in the U.S., where today an estimated 4.4 million are suffering from chronic hepatitis.

Of course, salon workers who are cosmetology license holders or are finishing their cosmetology CE are well versed in preventing infectious diseases at the salon because reputable schools like cosmetologycampus.com, a popular online cosmetology institute, emphasize health-and-prevention training.

“A lot of these places use sharp instruments and they could be re-using those,” Dr. Robert Gish, a clinical professor at U.C .San Diego informed Ivanhoe. “Ninety-five percent of people with hepatitis B have no symptoms. That’s the problem.”
Dr. Gish is drafting a health policy for the Vietnamese government on the spread of the liver disease. 

Hepatitis, especially the variant hepatitis B, is prevalent in the Asian-Pacific region and population studies show that every person born in the region is at a high risk of already being a carrier. Hepatitis B is 50 to 100 times more infectious than HIV, says the World Health Organization. Dr. Gish’s study involves thousands of salon workers, mostly of Vietnamese descent, who are now working in salons across the country.
The report points out the following practical measures to help protect the salon client from hepatitis B infection at the salon.

·         Make sure that your salon has a license is clearly.

·         Make sure that scissors and clippers are disinfected after every customer and only disposable files are used.

·         Make sure that the pedicure bath and all suction screens in the tubs are fresh.

·         Always take your own polish. 

Cosmetologycampus.com, the cosmetology portal of top e-learning hub 360training.com, provides comprehensive online cosmetology CE training (if you’re in Texas it’s called the Texas cosmetology CE; if you’re in Kentucky, it’s called the Kentuckycosmetology CE), a requirement by many states for renewing a cosmetology license.