Doctor warns against using public restrooms with little-known red flags that could put you at risk of hepatitis
A British doctor has warned that using public toilets could put you at risk of contracting a deadly virus.
Small, red spots on the toilet paper may be blood stains from cleaning needles by intravenous drug users.
The needles used for injecting illegal drugs are often contain blood that may be contaminated with pathogens, including hepatitis B, C or even HIV.
A London doctor has warned that this is a ‘possible’ risk, although it is a ‘very rare’ one.
Doctor Sermed Mezhera locum GP with more than 200,000 followers on TikTok, said: ‘People have said the risk of transmission when using any of these agents is one in three for hepatitis and one in 300 for HIV.
Small red spots on toilet paper could be blood stains left by intravenous drug users cleaning their needles, said Dr. Sermed Mezher.
‘But that applies to healthcare workers who experience the consequences immediately when the blood is still wet.
‘Once something like this has dried up, the chance of transmission is significantly smaller, but it is still possible.’
Experts have long warned that intravenous drug users sometimes resort to makeshift cleaning methods for their needles, such as wiping the needles with toilet paper or other available materials.
But this method is not effective in properly sterilizing the needle, because wiping the needle with toilet paper does not remove or kill the viruses.
Instead, they can remain on the needle or expose people to indirect exposure through surfaces such as sinks, toilet seats, or dispensers.
Dr Mezher added: ‘Of course, it would be very rare that a drug user would want to do this because he or she would blunt the needle.
‘There are also needle exchange programs where they can get clean needles for free.
“These drug rehabilitation programs are not only important to protect others, but also to protect ourselves.”
Other experts warn that the risk of contracting HIV from toilet paper is virtually zero.
Once outside the body, HIV “usually cannot survive for long”, the Terrence Higgins Trust advises.
“Contact with blood or semen that has been outside the body generally does not pose a risk of HIV transmission,” the charity said.
In another TikTok video, California-based nonprofit Harm Reduction Services also warned that toilet paper is unlikely to be used to clean needles as “needles dull very quickly.”
They added: ‘When someone cleans needles to reuse them … they do so with a liquid, such as a bleach solution, so that the tip doesn’t become blunt.’
However, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), hepatitis is 50 to 100 times more contagious than HIV.
According to the UN agency, the hepatitis B virus can also survive outside the body for at least 7 days.
According to the National AIDS Trust, an estimated 105,200 people are living with HIV in the UK.
But only 94 percent of these people are diagnosed.
This means that around 1 in 16 people with HIV in the UK do not know they have the virus.
But Dr Mezher said the risk of transmission, while ‘possible’, is still ‘incredibly rare’. The locum GP, who has more than 200,000 TikTok followers, said: ‘People have said the risk of transmission when using one of these drugs is one in three for hepatitis and one in 300 for HIV.
Treatment options have evolved significantly since HIV was first identified in the early 1980s. Patients now take daily medications – antiretroviral therapies – to keep the amount of virus in the blood to undetectable levels.
Although these drugs are effective, they do not cure the disease.
Scientists have been baffled by this for decades because of the unique way in which the virus hijacks the body’s own cells.
HIV hides in immune cells in the body, where the virus cells can protect themselves from destruction.
This makes it difficult to detect and kill HIV in the body, as there is a risk that healthy cells will also be damaged.
Hepatitis, of which there are several forms, often produces no noticeable symptoms.
Signs of an infection include dark urine, light gray stools, itchy skin, and yellowing of the eyes and skin.
According to the NHS, infected people may also experience muscle and joint pain, high fever, nausea and feeling sick, and may feel unusually tired all the time.
However, experts warn that living with hepatitis B “often stigmatizes people, leading to fewer people coming forward for potentially life-saving treatments.”
The NHS wants to eradicate another type of hepatitis, hepatitis C (hep C), by 2025, five years ahead of the WHO target.
Deaths from hep C in England have fallen by 35 per cent in six years, well above the 10 per cent target. They are also at their lowest level for 20 years.