the "acid cleaning" process, which is quite common, uses as part of the process, I believe, HCL (hyrochloric acid). I'm not a doctor or anything, but it was mentioned in a previous posting that HCL would kill the Hep A, so my suggestion to you would be to invest the roughly $50 and have the horn acid dipped.
Any reputable repair shop will be able to do this for you, and the price of the procedure normally includes replacement of the felts and corks anyway.
Hope that helps?