)
Background: The increasing popularity of body piercing has led to concern about the potential risk for spread of blood borne viruses (BBVs), in particular hepatitis C (HCV). Many people have recently entered the industry but little is known about their level of training and understanding of how HCV is spread.
Aims: To assess body piercing practitioners' current state of knowledge about HCV and infection control and to determine the extent of HCV contamination of equipment and environmental surfaces within Victorian body piercing establishments.
Methods: Environmental health officers working for 12 councils in metropolitan and rural Victoria recruited establishments. Practitioners completed a questionnaire about the type of piercings performed, their frequency, cleaning and disposal of equipment and training and knowledge of HCV. Environmental swabs were taken of clean and contaminated surfaces and equipment and tested for hepatitis C RNA.
Results: Thirty-five establishments were recruited between July and October 2001. The median number of piercings performed monthly was 20 (range 0-80). The most common piercing was earlobes followed by ear cartilage. Thirty-one practitioners reported undergoing training ranging from one hour to 6 years. Eight reported using water only to clean their piercing guns. One establishment used water only and 3 used autoclave only to clean their forceps or guiding equipment. All practitioners had heard of HVC but a number were unaware of how the disease spread, whether the disease could be chronic or if a person with HCV looked unwell. Nineteen practitioners stated they did extra cleaning post-piercing if they knew a customer was HCV positive. No hepatitis C RNA was identified on the environmental swabs.
Conclusions: The training of practitioners who participated in the study varied and was often limited, as was their understanding of infection control practices and hepatitis C infections. The results should be taken into consideration when updating the standards of practice for body piercing (Department of Human Services, 1990).
Timeline: June 2001 - December 2002
Project staff: Margaret Hellard, Campbell Aitken, Nick Crofts
Collaborators: Andrew Mackintosh, Alison Ridge (Australian Institute of Environmental Health), Scott Bowden (VIDRL)
Funding body: Department of Human Services, Victoria
Outputs:
Hellard M, Mackintosh A, Ridge A, Bowden S, Aitken CK (2003) An investigation of Hepatitis C and commercial body piercing in Victoria, Australia. American Journal of Infection Control 31(4):215-220
Hellard M, Aitken C, Mackintosh A, Ridge A, Bowden S, Crofts N. (2002)A report on infection control practices and knowledge of hepatitis C virus among body piercing practitioners in Victoria. Environmental Health, 2(4), 79-93. (A full reproduction of our report to DHS is available at our downloads page.)
Contact: hellard[AT]burnet.edu.au