I really love this website, always alot of great information..

I really hope you answer. I have 2 questions

1. my 9 year old son spent the night with his freinds and his freind and his brother are Diabetic type 1..

late in the evening their mother needed to test the boys sugar and all 3 were alseep in the bed. ( believe it or not she uses the same lancet on both her boys usually) she says its just easier and they are brothers anyway...

any way one of the boys poked was mine (oops wrong hand) it was dark and they were sleeping. of course my son was asleep so he doesnt know if he was first or second.. is there a concern? I dont know the health history of the parents or kids and the mom doesnt want to worry me so she told me the lancet was new when it poked my son but I really dont know if thats true..please let me know the risk?

2. I got a manicure and when the lady took out the nippers to remove the dead cutilcles( and of course I am too embarrassed to question any one) I saw she just took them out of a cup of her station.. they obviously werent sterelized, I am sure she just uses them over all day long, anyway she didnt draw any blood on me and I didnt actually see any blood on the nippers.. what is the risk of that?

Thank you

As for question 1: Fortunately, most children do not have either chronic hepatitis B or C so I suspect the risk is minimal in terms of the source. The risk of chronic hepatitis B in usually in countries where infants are infected at birth from their mothers or where unclean needles are used for injections.

As for question 2: The risk sounds negligible. However in the future, never hesitate to speak up if you are about to have something done where you want to question the equipment that is about to be used.

Dr. McGovern