Hair Cut Transmission

[anxiouskate]

I was just in for a haircut and I heard the woman go "ouch", but didn't think anything of it. When she was checking me out, she had grabbed a tissue because she had cut herself. I am worried about the chance of transmission from when she apparently was bleeding and kept cutting my hair. She handed me her comb and had me use it after she was done, and I can only assume there was blood on it. I am sick to my stomach with worry. Is there a chance I contracted something if I had a wound I didn't know about on my scalp?

[flyinlynn]

In order to transmitt the hep c virus bloidcfrom a person infected with hep c must enter into an open wet weeping wound in other words a fresh injury. I assume you would have noticed such a fresh bleeding wound in your scalp as your hair would be wet with blood from your fresh injury. Then the hep c infected blood would have to be forced into that injury.

For reference  even in the case of a healthcare worker who experiences an accidental needlestick involving a patient with known hepatitis C the odds of transmission are only 1.8%.

First, only a very small percentage of the population has the hepatitis C virus so it's likely your hairdresser does not have hepatitis C. Two as I suspect that you did not have an open wet weeping wound or you very likely would have known that you did I expect that your risk in the situation is zero.

My suggestion is to not worry about medical problems you don't have and seek treatment for the medical problem that you do have which is excessive worry about catching illness that the odds of you contracting is almost nonexistent and that even if you ever do contract it  that is entirely curable.

I recommend you see a counselor and get treatment for your anxiety.