HijamahWorks Policy on Sterilization and Cups

Patient and Practitioner safety is our top priority. HijamahWorks believes it is every person's right to their own cups. Unfortunately due to ignorance and lack of knowledge, some people have the belief that hijamah can be unsafe.  What is the cure to ignorance? Knowledge. After consulting with doctors, the hijamah community and other experts we have formed safety procedures as follows: 
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Our policy is as follows: 

• For Wet Cupping, by default, we use a completely disposable system for everything. No contaminated materials are ever re-used (Ex. cups, blades etc.). 
• For Dry Cupping, we have re-usable cups which are cleansed and sterilized with hospital-grade agents. Cavicide kills bacteria, fungus, HIV, Hepatitis and other blood borne diseases. You may look up more on "Cavicide" on Google to understand this better. 
• For dry cupping, we offer patients the option to purchase and bring in their own cups. 
• For Wet Cupping, we do not allow outside cups. This is because we do not have any transparency if they have been sterilized adequately, and we do not want to risk contaminating our internal environment with outside materials.
• The practitioner always wears sterile gloves and never re-uses gloves. Gloves may be disposed and changed midway through a treatment if they get contaminated. 
• The treatment area (massage table or chair) is sterilized with hospital grade agents between clients. 
• Female patients may request a disposable gown to cover themselves, and are disposed after single-use. 
• Earthen materials (bamboo, clay, tin etc.) are closer to the sunnah, however are difficult to source so we do not use them. 

​Q: Is there any risk of infection from Hijamah? 

Firstly one must understand the nature of blood borne pathogens.   Here are some principles:

a) Blood borne diseases pass from one person to another when there is direct exchange of blood from open wounds or when a needle is inserted immediately from one person to another 

b) Blood dies within 2 minutes of exiting the body. Outside of the sealed environment in the body, blood cannot survive.

In fact Allah (swt) has created blood to clot and coagulate and undergo chemical reactions as soon as it makes contact with atmospheric air. This is why you bleeding stops: internally it clots and forms a scab. The same happens with blood spilled out of the body - it dies within 2 minutes 

From point a) the person at most risk for transfer of disease is actually the hijamah therapist.

For a person to attain a blood borne disease from another patient, the cutting instrument would literally have been used from 1 person to another within a matter of minutes. For this reason we do not treat multiple people at a time, and have proper procedures for disposal of blades after single-use. 

​You actually have a higher chance of getting an infection from playing sports with someone who has a cut. 

Q: What if a person has an active blood borne disease such as Hepatitis or Malaria? 

In these cases where a person has a diagnosed bloodborne disease, we will always use disposable cups on them even if its dry cupping. 

Q: Is Alcohol an effective disinfectant? 

No it is not. Alcohol may kill some bacteria but it is not effective against fungus or blood borne pathogens. Typically, store-bought isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol is not more than 9%. As an alternative when sterilization is required, bleach is far more effective. In fact, when humanitarian missions are launched to countries after disaster, they cannot afford to bring disposable equipment for each person they help. They rely on these old methods of sterilization such as bleach, to cleanse their instruments. 

​Q: Is there risk of bacterial infection? 

Any infection that comes after hijama would not be from the cup or the blade, since these are single-use disposable. If it happens, it would come from improper skin care after hijamah. We disinfect the skin site before and after hijama and give care instructions. Should an infection come on the skin, we advise you to treat it as you would for any other skin cut i.e. use an over the counter antibacterial ointment such as polysporin and contact a doctor if it gets worse.