Turkey's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced via his Twitter account that they would take a new step to combat blood-borne diseases.

He said they had launched an important study to prevent the transmission of viral hepatitis and HIV/AIDS, which is a serious public health problem all over the world.

"Meeting with non-governmental organizations representing barber, hairdresser and beauty salons, we started our protocol preparations to document the hygiene standards, sterilization and disinfection conditions of these businesses," said Minister Koca.

The minister emphasized that they aim to implement the certification work as soon as possible by meetings with the relevant association, federation, and sector representatives.

"We will speed up training and inspections under the protocol. In addition, our ministry will give a certificate of conformity to the enterprises implementing hygiene and quality standards," he noted.

More than 40 million people in the world carry the HIV virus, 325 million people are suffering from hepatitis B and C, Koca said. 1.4 million people lose their lives in the world every year due to viral hepatitis caused by cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Noting that more than 4 million people carry hepatitis B and C virus in Turkey, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said more than half of organ transplants carried out by liver failure depending on viral hepatitis.

Hepatitis B, C, and HIV/AIDS can be transmitted through blood, with unsterilized surgical materials, with unsterilized tools, with applications such as tattoos, acupuncture, sharing of items such as razors, toothbrushes, etc. (ILKHA)