Blood and virus detection on barber 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. 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 clean-shave 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 blood-specific 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. CONCLUSIONS: 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 sterilisation 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.

Blood and virus detection on barber 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.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 clean-shave 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 blood-specific 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.Conclusions. 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 sterilisation 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

Geometric classification of scalp hair for valid drug testing, 6 more reliable than 8 hair curl groups.

INTRODUCTION: Curly hair is reported to contain higher lipid content than straight hair, which may influence incorporation of lipid soluble drugs. The use of race to describe hair curl variation (Asian, Caucasian and African) is unscientific yet common in medical literature (including reports of drug levels in hair). This study investigated the reliability of a geometric classification of hair (based on 3 measurements: the curve diameter, curl index and number of waves). MATERIALS AND METHODS: After ethical approval and informed consent, proximal virgin (6cm) hair sampled from the vertex of scalp in 48 healthy volunteers were evaluated. Three raters each scored hairs from 48 volunteers at two occasions each for the 8 and 6-group classifications. One rater applied the 6-group classification to 80 additional volunteers in order to further confirm the reliability of this system. The Kappa statistic was used to assess intra and inter rater agreement. RESULTS: Each rater classified 480 hairs on each occasion. No rater classified any volunteer's 10 hairs into the same group; the most frequently occurring group was used for analysis. The inter-rater agreement was poor for the 8-groups (k = 0.418) but improved for the 6-groups (k = 0.671). The intra-rater agreement also improved (k = 0.444 to 0.648 versus 0.599 to 0.836) for 6-groups; that for the one evaluator for all volunteers was good (k = 0.754). CONCLUSIONS: Although small, this is the first study to test the reliability of a geometric classification. The 6-group method is more reliable. However, a digital classification system is likely to reduce operator error. A reliable objective classification of human hair curl is long overdue, particularly with the increasing use of hair as a testing substrate for treatment compliance in Medicine.

Invisible bleeding from clean-shave haircuts: detection with blood specific RNA markers.

BACKGROUND: 'Haircut-associated bleeding' is a newly recognized entity that affects at least a quarter of African men who wear shiny clean-shave ('chiskop') haircuts. AIM: This pilot study aimed to elucidate whether invisible haircut-associated bleeding was detectable using blood specific RNA markers (16 participants, 5 with unknown HIV status) and whether surface virus could be detected using PCR from scalp swabs (of 11 known HIV-positive participants). METHODS: Haircuts were performed professionally and scalps examined by a dermatologist to exclude injury. Serum samples for viral loads were also collected at the same time. RESULTS: In all, 6/16 (37%) samples tested positive (>100 relative fluorescent units) for hemoglobin beta and albumin, confirming evidence of blood; of these, only 1/11 was HIV-positive but had an undetectable serum viral load. No surface HIV was detected from any scalp samples. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the entity of haircut-associated bleeding but goes further to show for the first time that invisible bleeding from clean-shave haircuts is also common. Both a high serum viral load and evidence of bleeding should ideally be present prior to surface HIV detection. Future investigations for potential HIV (and hepatitis B) transmission through clean-shave haircuts are warranted but should not delay public education for disease prevention.