GUELPH -- Customers of a Guelph nail salon are being urged to get tested for HIV and hepatitis B and C.
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health is offering free tests after a woman who recently got her nails done at the salon tested positive for hepatitis C.
The Public Health clinic opened at 9 a.m. By noon, it was at max capacity with a three-hour wait for anyone wanting to get tested.
According to a news release, the woman who tested positive for the liver infection was a customer of Victoria's Nail Salon.
Public Health can't say for sure that the salon is the source, but it was a place that she had been recently.
A public notice states that, after an unannounced inspection, Public Health found that equipment was not properly cleaned after each use, disinfectant was not mixed or changed appropriately and dirty instruments were stored with clean ones.
Anyone who went to the salon between April 2018 and Feb. 2020 is being urged to get tested.
"I think there is a certain expectation as a customer that you’re paying for a service that should be safe and it’s a very low risk thing to do," says customer Emma McLean.
"So the fact that this is happening and the fact that we have to go out of our way to get blood test for something as serious as hepatitis or HIV, it’s really frustrating."
Public Health says that the risk of contracting a disease is low, but the organization advises testing as a precaution.
For those who get tested, it will take two weeks for customers to get their results.
The clinic will also be open on Thursday and Friday this week.
As for the salon, CTV News has been told that the owner is out of the country and unavailable.
An apology on the salon's Facebook post was also deleted.
