Barbing Equipments: Tools for Transmission of Tinea Capitis

This efficacy of sterilization and cleaning methods used in the barbing salons and the possibility of those equipments acting as vehicles of transmission of fungal pathogens from one customer to another was assessed in this study. Thirty barbing saloons were randomly selected from the five wards in Calabar South. One hundred and fifty samples were aseptically collected using sterile swab sticks to brush out debris from combs, hair brushes and sterilized clippers into sterile paper envelopes. Samples were subjected to microscopy, culture and physiological tests. The recovery rate of fungal organisms from barbing equipments was 52(34.7%). Dermatophytes recovery rates was 40(26.7%) and non dermatophytes recovery rates was 12(8.0%). There was a statistically significant relationship between dermatophytes and barbing equipments recovered from (χ2 = 25.0, p =0.01). Trichophyton interdigitale 12(30.0%). was the most common dermatophtye recovered from barbing equipments, followed by Trichophyton rubrum 9(22.5%). Malassezia species 5(41.6%) was the most common non dermatophytes recovered, followed by Aspergillus flavus 3(25.0%). Hair brushes were the most contaminated equipments (60.0%) by dermatophytes while the least contaminated were the hair clippers 17.5%. Dermatophytes and non dermatophytes were recovered from barbing equipments which depicts that they could serve as vehicles for transmission of fungal infections. Although the clippers were sterilized by all Barbers, dermatophytes and few non dermatophytes were still recovered from them. This points to incomplete sterilization either by disinfectant inefficacy or methods inefficiency.