3 women diagnosed with HIV after receiving vampire facial treatment
THREE women had been diagnosed with HIV after getting “vampire facial” procedures at an unlicensed New Mexico medical spa, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report last week, marking the first documented cases of people contracting the virus through cosmetic services using needles.
In the report, health officials disclosed that a probe into VIP Spa in Albuquerque from 2018 to 2023 had exposed some alarming practices.
The spa is accused of reusing disposable items meant to be used just once, which has led to clients contracting HIV through treatments that involved contaminated blood, according to The New York Times.
The investigation linked five individuals who all had nearly identical HIV strains. Four had received a skin treatment, known as platelet-rich plasma microneedling, at the spa.
The fifth, a man, was romantically involved with one of the female clients. The exact cause of the contamination remains a mystery.
The investigation initially started when a woman in her forties, who had no known risks for HIV, such as drug use, blood transfusions or unprotected sex with an infected partner, was diagnosed with the virus in the summer of 2018.
The diagnosis came after she had received a cosmetic procedure involving needle use – a plateletrich plasma microneedling facial, at VIP Spa, as reported by The Independent.
During an inspection at the spa, shocking conditions were uncovered, including tubes of blood without labels left on a kitchen counter, some kept in a fridge next to food, and used syringes found in drawers and trash cans.
The investigation also found that the spa was using disposable equipment, which should be thrown away after one use, multiple times.
The report follows recent warnings about illnesses linked to fake Botox treatments that had dangerously high levels of botulinum toxin, according to The New York Times.
Vampire facials are a trendy cosmetic procedure that involves taking a
client's blood, spinning it in a machine to extract platelet-rich plasma and then using tiny needles to inject it back into the face.