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Blood and virus detection on barber hair clippers
Background: Bleeding from the popular clean-shave ‘chiskop’ haircut was recently reported as prevalent in South Africa (SA), a country with 6.9 million HIV-infected people. Objectives. To investigate the prevalence of barber hair clipper contamination with blood and HIV and hepatitis B viruses. Meth...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Division of Dermatology
2020
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| _version_ | 1867613176852381696 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Spengane, Zandile Namhla Elizabeth |
| author2 | Khumalo, Nonhlanhla |
| author_browse | Khumalo, Nonhlanhla Spengane, Zandile Namhla Elizabeth |
| author_facet | Khumalo, Nonhlanhla Spengane, Zandile Namhla Elizabeth |
| author_sort | Spengane, Zandile Namhla Elizabeth |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Background: Bleeding from the popular clean-shave ‘chiskop’ haircut was recently reported as prevalent in South Africa (SA), a country with 6.9 million HIV-infected people. Objectives. To investigate the prevalence of barber hair clipper contamination with blood and HIV and hepatitis B viruses. Methods: Fifty barbers from three townships in Cape Town, SA, were invited to participate. One clipper from each barber was collected immediately after it had been used for a cleanshave haircut. Each clipper was rinsed with phosphate-buffered saline and then submerged in viral medium. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to identify the bloodspecific RNA marker haemoglobin beta (HBB), hepatitis B virus (HBV) and HIV. Results: The clean-shave haircut was the most common haircut requested by clients (78%). Of the clippers collected, 42% were positive for HBB, confirming detection of blood, none were positive for HIV, and 4 (8%) were positive for HBV. Two clippers (clippers 16 and 20) were positive on qualitative HBV PCR. HBV DNA from clipper 16 clustered with genotype A sequences from SA, India, Brazil and Martinique, while clipper 20 clustered with SA genotype D sequences. The clipper 20 sequence was identical to a subtype D sequence (GenBank accession AY233291) from Gauteng, SA. Conclusion: This study confirms that there is significant contamination of barber hair clippers with blood and blood-borne viruses. Hepatitis B was detected with enough DNA copies to pose a risk of transmitting infection. Although HIV was not detected in this small study, the risk of transmission should be quantified. Further studies to investigate barber clipper sterilization practices and whether the clean-shave hairstyle is an independent risk factor for HIV, HBV and hepatitis C virus infections are warranted. Public education on individual clipper ownership (as is the case with a toothbrush) should be advocated for clean-shave and blade-fade haircuts. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/30855 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:31:58.458Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publishDateRange | 2020 |
| publishDateSort | 2020 |
| publisher | Division of Dermatology |
| publisherStr | Division of Dermatology |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/30855 Blood and virus detection on barber hair clippers Spengane, Zandile Namhla Elizabeth Khumalo, Nonhlanhla Ngwanya, Mzudumile R Dermatology Background: Bleeding from the popular clean-shave ‘chiskop’ haircut was recently reported as prevalent in South Africa (SA), a country with 6.9 million HIV-infected people. Objectives. To investigate the prevalence of barber hair clipper contamination with blood and HIV and hepatitis B viruses. Methods: Fifty barbers from three townships in Cape Town, SA, were invited to participate. One clipper from each barber was collected immediately after it had been used for a cleanshave haircut. Each clipper was rinsed with phosphate-buffered saline and then submerged in viral medium. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to identify the bloodspecific RNA marker haemoglobin beta (HBB), hepatitis B virus (HBV) and HIV. Results: The clean-shave haircut was the most common haircut requested by clients (78%). Of the clippers collected, 42% were positive for HBB, confirming detection of blood, none were positive for HIV, and 4 (8%) were positive for HBV. Two clippers (clippers 16 and 20) were positive on qualitative HBV PCR. HBV DNA from clipper 16 clustered with genotype A sequences from SA, India, Brazil and Martinique, while clipper 20 clustered with SA genotype D sequences. The clipper 20 sequence was identical to a subtype D sequence (GenBank accession AY233291) from Gauteng, SA. Conclusion: This study confirms that there is significant contamination of barber hair clippers with blood and blood-borne viruses. Hepatitis B was detected with enough DNA copies to pose a risk of transmitting infection. Although HIV was not detected in this small study, the risk of transmission should be quantified. Further studies to investigate barber clipper sterilization practices and whether the clean-shave hairstyle is an independent risk factor for HIV, HBV and hepatitis C virus infections are warranted. Public education on individual clipper ownership (as is the case with a toothbrush) should be advocated for clean-shave and blade-fade haircuts. 2020-01-31T14:30:37Z 2020-01-31T14:30:37Z 2019 2020-01-24T09:07:32Z Master Thesis Masters MMed http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30855 eng application/pdf Division of Dermatology Faculty of Health Sciences |
| spellingShingle | Dermatology Spengane, Zandile Namhla Elizabeth Blood and virus detection on barber hair clippers |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Blood and virus detection on barber hair clippers |
| title_full | Blood and virus detection on barber hair clippers |
| title_fullStr | Blood and virus detection on barber hair clippers |
| title_full_unstemmed | Blood and virus detection on barber hair clippers |
| title_short | Blood and virus detection on barber hair clippers |
| title_sort | blood and virus detection on barber hair clippers |
| topic | Dermatology |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30855 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT spenganezandilenamhlaelizabeth bloodandvirusdetectiononbarberhairclippers |