Nail Care Myths and Facts

Comment: Contagious Diseases in Beauty Procedures. Governments, the Media and the beauty care infections There is no explanation among specialists why health authorities are not tacking actions to reduce the rising number of infected people sharing tools in beauty care. The media does not divulgate these threats and most technicians do not understand enough how deadly viruses and other diseases are infecting their clients. It is a public health threat. Manicure, pedicure, podiatry, piercing, tattooing (ink), in less extend acne extractions and hair electrolysis treatments are still using incorrectly sterilized needles and instruments. These instruments when used for cutting, filing, lifting, pushing or do micro-lacerations on skin, cuticles or nails, they are cross contaminating people with the Hepatitis B, C, D, G virus and many ordinary diseases. If the sanitary rules would oblige only the use of autoclaved, personal or disposable tools, the number of infected people would be minimized. It is not understandable why prevention campaigns for these beauty cares are not connected to AIDS programs. There are already 400 million people infected with one of these hepatitis viruses and most contaminated people do not know that they are infected, and many are infecting others through poorly sterilized shared tools. These viruses are difficult to kill and the sterilizations or disinfection methods in use frequently infect people. How can hepatitis be traced to beauty treatments? Once a person is contaminated it is difficult to notice it at its early stages, making it very complicate to trace the virus back to its source. Physicians have to suppose a diagnosis, these viruses transferred through body fluids turn into an active disease some 20 years after contamination. Hospital, medical, dental procedures are obliged to sterilize their tools with autoclaves. Autoclave is the only method that kills these types of viruses, fungi, bacteria and their spores. But, unbelievably, beauty technicians are not required to use autoclaves and most beauty services are still using very unreliable means to sterilize or sanitize their tools. The disinfection and sanitation methods in use, including heat air oven are unsafe and the use of disposable, personal and autoclaved tools is very limited. The control of their sterilization efficiencies is rare, weak and lacking. Even the only safe medical grade method to sterilize these tools, the autoclave, when not correctly used the sterilization can easily fail. The autoclave’s long process of washing, packing, sterilizing and drying the tools is complicate, time consuming and expensive for a work that charges low payments, giving chances for failures These threats turn into real diseases. But they are not popularly known and no serious measures for prevention are being taken. There is no political interest in it and very few people know the risky consequences of sharing weakly sterilized tools. Millions are suffering from these contaminations and every day physicians confirm new infections. Worldwide, regulatory rules are lacking, they are not made for infected people, or for the new viruses and bacteria which appeared in the last years. Health authorities are not doing enough and there are no efficient campaigns to prevent these contaminations. State committees are lacking to use infectlogy concepts in their cosmetology rules and regulations. More research, alert campaigns, stronger and updated rules are necessary. The number of users is growing fast and so the number of new infected people. For the population to believe in this danger and to become aware of these threats more information through campaigns or advertisings is urgently necessary. Consumers need more protection. Health oriented politicians could use this prevention to create a political interest, it saves lives, reduces suffering, health treatment costs, treatment time and production loss. Prevention is cheaper than to treat diseases, where hepatitis will kill millions in the next years. This prevention, alerting campaigns can be made through boards exposed at stores, on tags fixed on the product, in web sites, through the media, medical articles, in trade shows and exhibitions. Thus, when a micro blood, lymph or serum contact from one person to another person occurs, the tools must have medical grade sterilization, be discharged or personalized. The best alternative and the cheapest solution for a reliable prevention is the use of only personal instruments. For manicure and pedicure there is a complete and cheap patented tool with 18 functions needing a manufacturer. THE TRANSMITTED DISEASES Scientific researches and physicians confirm these contaminations and none is taking them serious. People get infected much faster than we imagine and the economic crisis aggravates the problem. Less money means less autoclaved safe sterilized tools and less government investments in professionals and to organize the services. Beauty procedures they do produce infectious contagious diseases! They are still one of the few ensanguined and invasive work done on clients where micro particles of lymph, serum or blood frequently are not correctly sterilized and infect people. This occurs when; a tiny cut, a cracked or filed skin, a torn cuticle, a fluid leaks from the nail’s bed (by cutting nails to close to it), when skin micro-lacerations occur and when sick nails are treated. In brief, when the seal is broken on a fingertip, a cuticle, a sick nail or skin, infections are easily transmitted, as: mycosis (nail fungus, athlete’s foot, etc.), herpes, warts, paronychias, erysipelas, bacterial infections (Strepto, Staphylo and Pseudomonas), piogenic granuloma, and other viral infections, in some cases, with hepatitis. Certainly, if these ordinary diseases are infecting people, the Hepatitis B, C (discovered in 1989), D and G (discovered in 1995) viruses are also infecting users of shared tools and this in an increasing number. Always more people are carrying one of these mutating viruses and there is the mother to child transmission. How the super-bacteria MRSA, the Clostridium difficile and the Acinetobacter baumannii are infecting the blood stream through unsafe tools is not clear yet, more research is necessary. If you are interested or if you need more information, please, contact: Hans Mueller, fax: xx55 24 2242 0986 or by e-mail: mullerbrasil@yahoo.com.br