Hep b / c risk from hairdresser

[WorryWart]

Hi,

Hope everyone is keeping safe.  I have a question:

My 2 year old son had a haircut a couple of months ago.  He sat on my husband's lap.  When we left, my husband noticed a raw spot on my son's forehead and initially thought the hairdresser may have nicked him, although he didn't flinch and was relaxed throughout it. After looking closely, we decided it was a spot.  The next day, my son got more spots and it turned out to be chickenpox. 

I'm worried in case the hairdresser had caught it with their comb or scissors, would there be a hepatitis B or C risk?  If they had, would a chickenpox spot lead to the bloodstream? I unfortunately can't remember what the spot looked like.  My husband says there wasn't any blood, it was just raw (like chickenpox spots are), he would have noticed if the hairdresser had caught him as he was on his lap.  He thinks it's my OCD getting the better of me.

Many thanks.

[Lynn K]

I tend to agree with your husband in this situation

[WorryWart]

Thanks Lynn.  I just worry in case there was blood and she grazed the blister/spot with her comb without us noticing, would there be a risk?

[Lynn K]

I’m sure any hair salon would be following normal safety protocols and even more so in these days of covid 19. They should be cleaning personal products between customers as a standard practice. I’m sure they wouldn’t want to risk transmitting hair lice for example between clients so it’s highly likely the comb was used without cleaning prior to being used on the next customer. The US CDC does not list getting a haircut as a risk of transmission or even sharing of a comb within the same household as a risk. They do list sharing of personal hygiene products with someone who has known hep c like fingernail clippers, toothbrushes or razor blades where a risk of blood being on the implement does exist but that risk is relatively small.

You are worrying about extremely remote possibility risks. In theory, if one of the less than 4% of the population infected with hep c had just had the comb used on them and their scalp was somehow bleeding (which seems very unlikely) and then the barber failed in their responsibility to clean and not reuse a dirty comb on the next client (again not likely) and that somehow blood infected with hep c that I very much doubt would be present was able to enter that fresh weeping would (again very unlikely) but in any event if those very long odds some how aligned and hep c blood did contact that wound even with that the odds say of a health care worker experiencing an accidental needle stick the odds of transmission are only about 1.8%. So more or less you are worrying about the near impossible odds of hep c infected blood coming into contact with a small blister and even if in some nearly miraculous manner this did occur the odds of transmission would be obviously lower than a more invasive needle stick. If I were to try in anyway to quantify this risk I would hazard a guess at about a billion to one. Or say getting the winning lottery ticket and getting hit by lightning on the same day. Nothing in life is zero risk but all in all I’d say any risk would be bordering on impossible.

[WorryWart]

Thanks Lynn, that's put my mind at ease   I am not convinced that the hairdresser did clean the comb before us and she just put in on the side after us and took payment.  I'm in the UK.

I'm assuming the risk would be same for Hep B? 

[Lynn K]

I assume the risk for hep b would be even less again this is not listed in the US CDC hep b faq for the general public as a risk. If your not in a third would country one would assume a licensed hairdresser would be taking universal precautions especially I would expect even more so these days of the covid pandemic