If you have been planning to enjoy a fish pedicure at an upscale salon, you may have missed the opportunity, as this particular beauty treatment may not be available in the U.K. any longer. The Health Protection Agency is currently investigating the potential risk of infection due to non-sterile instruments.
Having a fish pedicure is a matter of sitting with one’s feet in a shallow tank of very warm water for 15 minutes to half an hour whilst very small, toothless fish nibble the dead skin off those feet. The fish are called gara ruffa, or doctor fish, imported from Asia; they are members of the carp family. The concern of health agencies is that the fish could spread disease from any open wound from one foot to the next, since the fish are neither discarded nor sanitized between ‘operations’.
Fish pedicures have been outlawed in several states in the U.S., though so far there have been no reports of infections resulting from the procedure, either in the U.S. or the U.K. The problem, as far as health officials are concerned, is the possibility of fungal or other infections being carried from one treatment to another via the fish, which are far too valuable to discard after one use. The HPA says that they will assess all the evidence before prohibiting or restricting the use of fish for foot care.
I’m surprised just how so many fish pedicure spas have sprung up in the uk without looking fully at the possible health risks to clients, or insuring against them.