The trend of getting tattoos and piercings are increasing, especially among youth. If your are planning for the same then make sure it is from professional and not from a friend as the ink used by armature could carry a risk of Hepatitis C, found a new report.
Researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that getting on tattoos from non-professionals seem to raise the risk of a probable HCV infection or blood-borne liver infection. Hepatitis C always remains a major public health trouble in the United States with between seventy-five and eighty-five percent of people infected from the disease developing chronic infection
HCV infection can lead to severe diseases such as cirrhosis and liver cancer. The infection often passed to people through contact with infected blood. Every year only in US, there are about eighteen thousand new cases of Hepatitis C infections are found, mostly when people who inject drugs share infected syringes or needles.
Researcher Rania Tohme, an epidemiologist and colleagues analyzed statistics which are based on a collection of studies that have been made public since 1994. The study showed that people who had tattoos by non-professionals faced was two to four times higher risk of hepatitis C than those received tattoos and piercings from professionals.
Tattoos and piercings can transmit hepatitis C and other infections if performed under non-sterile conditions. People should not have tattoos or piercings done by friends or by people who are not trained professionals, stated Tohme. The study findings were published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Prison tattoos are a particular problem, as tattooing is so common and inmates may have other risk factors for Hepatitis C.
There has been no evidence, till today that tattoos and piercings performed in professional parlors have been implicated in transmission of hepatitis C virus. When going to a non-professional, though, there are some precautions that can be taken, such as disposable piercing needles, tattoo needles and razors are used on one person and then thrown away, concluded Tohme.