Hepatitis B viruses also lurk on nail scissors

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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Hepatitis B is mainly transmitted through sexual contact. Especially in the early phase after infection, the smallest amounts of blood are sufficient to transfer the pathogen to the partner even if the partner is injured. Other body fluids are also infectious. But there are evidently ways of infection that hardly anyone thinks of: shared hygiene articles.

This can be nail scissors, for example. Unlike toothbrushes and razor blades, they are often shared by people in a household. Virus transmission can occur if nail scissors are used first by someone infected with hepatitis B and then by a healthy person, and both of them injure themselves easily during use.

Hepatis B DNA in the blood

A team led by Dr. Mehmet Koroglu from the Turkish University of Adapazari has investigated how often the fingernails and nail scissors of people infected with hepatitis B are contaminated with the virus. To do this, the researchers examined samples from 70 infected people. The researchers found hepatis B DNA in the blood of 63 of them. 27 healthy people served as the control group.

The infected provided a total of 97 nail scissors. In 17 of the 63 Hepatis B-DNA-positive participants, the researchers were able to determine the virus genetic material on the scissors. Scratching or minor injuries could contaminate the nails with small amounts of blood, which then stick to the nail scissors.

How great is the risk of infection?

How quickly you can actually get infected depends on the virus concentration. With a very low serum value of 105 IU / ml (IU = international units), the risk of infection is still 72 percent, the researchers calculated.

Experts from the Robert Koch Institute RKI therefore advise against sharing hygiene items. Relatives of infected people should also get vaccinated against hepatitis B.

Rare in Western Europe, widespread worldwide

Hepatitis B is one of the most common infectious diseases worldwide. However, it is spread very differently from country to country.

In Western Europe less than one percent of the population is affected, in Eastern Europe it is up to 8 percent. But even in this country there are population groups in which hepatitis B occurs more frequently. This includes homosexually active men.

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