IN light of growing health concerns in the world, particularly in the wake of the A(H1N1) virus and the speed with which it has spread in the world, the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) organized the first forum on infectious diseases that can be transmitted through touching last Sunday at the Esmaeel Abo Dawood Hall in JCCI. The forum focused specifically on skin and nails. The two day forum was organized with the support of the Ministry of Health, Secretariat of Jeddah and sponsors from the private sector. Attended by approximately 500 health professionals and experts, the forum aimed to highlight the necessity of health education in society for all types of infectious diseases, and those transmitted via nails and skin in particular. It also aimed to enhance the level of cleanliness at salons. Consultant Podiatric (foot and ankle) surgeon, Dr. Khalid Edrees spoke prominently at the forum, explaining how diseases can be transmitted through nails and skin, particularly when fungi, bacteria and viruses are commonly transferred to perfectly healthy and unsuspecting people within salons. “Over a thousand salons and beauty centers should have attended the first day of this forum, but because they knew they would be asked to change the way they worked and encouraged to invest in sterilization, very few have actually attended,” he remarked. Indeed, the sheer absence of many established salons was conspicuous in a forum that was focusing on them, in particular. He added that both the employees working at such places and customers should be aware of what kind of infectious diseases are transmutative, and if in doubt, then they shoauld consult a doctor directly. In the Kingdom specifically, there is little to no awareness about this issue, and Dr. Edrees recommended seminars, workshops and yearly forums to raise awareness. He also advocated the involvement of ministry officials and penalties if salon owners and their employees are not prepared to follow certain health safety procedures. Another speaker, Dr. Sameer Zimmo, a professor and consultant Dermatologist remarked that those diseases that are related to blood are considered the most essential source of infectious diseases. A common way for such diseases to be ‘caught' by victims is by sharing a comb or brush with someone else. While visiting a salon for a hair cut for instance, people need to ensure that the comb or brush being used on their hair has been properly cleaned and disinfected. Anything with hair still stuck in it should instantly be refused. Using statistics from the past 15 years, he that showed 11 percent of the children in primary schools have had lice in their hair, with other problems like severe hair loss (sometimes leading to baldness), scalp acne, leishmaniasis (button-like sores on the skin which can eventually lead to damage to vital organs) and Tinea Capitis (also known as scalp ringworms). Such illnesses are more common in children than adults, so caution needs to be exercised in the case of minors in particular. His colleague, Dr. Hani Jokhdar, another professor and consultant in the field, spoke at length about the more severe kinds of infectious diseases prevalent in the world. “Approximately two billion people are suffering from the hepatitis virus in the world, and 400 million of these cases have been transmitted to the victim via someone else,” he remarked. Keeping salons clean Dr. Bashir Abo Najem, the director of business control within the Secretariat of Jeddah offered a set of guidelines on how to keep hairdressing tools clean and disinfected. “The salon employee can use a UV light system to check whether tools have been properly sterilized or not and the customer can be provided with a bag of disposable scissors, hair products, and comb/brush that can be bought once and kept by the customer or in a separate locker if the customer is a regular at the salon,” he explained. “We have also tried to impose the use of face masks and gloves during interactions between employee and customer at salons, but that has been difficult to implement because of the inconvenience involved.” The easiest and most common way to ensure proper sterilization, he added, was obviously to sterilize each hairdressing tool after each use and keep the surroundings clean and disinfected.
