Biosafety in beauty centers: knowledge and practices in a state capital in Northeast Brazil.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the knowledge and biosafety practices adopted by professionals of the beauty segment. METHODS Descriptive study, of survey type. 238 professionals of the beauty segment were interviewed between August 2014 and 2015. The variables were expressed by means of absolute and relative frequencies, as well as average and standard deviation. RESULTS 62.6% of the interviwed professionals reported having had contact with blood from customers when they were not wearing gloves; 74.4% said they washed their hands before and after each service, and only 16.8% of the respondents reported reusing nonsterilizable materials. None of them was able to inform the correct number of sets of tools needed , and 32.8% of the respondents did not use Personal Protective Equipment during their work activities. CONCLUSIONS The most frequently reported diseases associated with the risk of infection and transmission in the work activities were viral hepatitis, HIV and fungi. Regarding the biosafety procedures adopted, autoclave is the least used method for sterilizing devices.