Three women contracted HIV after dirty “vampire treatments” at an unlicensed spa.
The fashionable cosmetic procedure plasma lifting, or as it is also called “Dracula therapy”, was carried out in an unlicensed spa salon in New Mexico, which led to the infection of at least three women with HIV infection. This is the first case when cosmetic procedures were associated with an outbreak of HIV infection.
The story began after a woman in her 40s received a positive result of an express HIV test taken during a trip abroad in the summer of 2018. She had 1 stage of acute infection. This result was as stunning as it was sad. The woman had no clear risk factors for infection: no injection drug use, no blood transfusion, and her current and only recent sexual partner tested negative. But she did reveal that she had a facial in the spring of 2018 at a spa in Albuquerque called “VIP Spa.”
VIP Spa formerly located in Albuquerque, New Mexico / Photo: from the web
Plasmolifting is the general name of the microinjection procedure of platelet-rich plasma. During this procedure, the patient’s blood is drawn, it is squeezed to separate the plasma from the blood cells, and then the platelet-rich plasma is injected into the face using microneedles. The treatment is claimed to rejuvenate and improve the appearance of the skin, and is heavily promoted by celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow and Kim Kardashian.
Plasmolifting / Photo: from the network
The woman’s case led investigators to VIP Spa, which was unlicensed, had no appointment system, and did not keep contact information about customers. During an inspection in the fall of 2018, health inspectors found shocking conditions: unpacked syringes in drawers and on counters, unlabeled tubes of blood on the kitchen counter, more unlabeled blood and medical injections next to food in the kitchen refrigerator , as well as disposable equipment – tips for electric dryers – which were reused. The institution also did not have an autoclave – a pressure oven – for sterilizing equipment.
After this incident, infected people who visited the same beauty salon continue to be identified.
New victims
The spa was quickly shut down and the owner, Maria de Lourdes Ramos de Ruiz, 62, was charged with practicing medicine without a license. In 2022, she pleaded guilty to five counts and is serving three and a half years in prison.
The second client of the spa, another woman, tested positive for HIV in the fall of 2018, and was diagnosed in early 2019. In the summer of 2018, she underwent a “vampire” facial treatment. Her HIV infection was also at stage 1. Investigators tried to track down dozens of other customers, most of whom spoke Spanish as their first language. The next two detected cases were diagnosed only in the fall of 2021.
The following cases already concerned partners of infected women.
In 2023, doctors resumed investigating the outbreak and discovered a fifth case, which was diagnosed in the spring of 2023, also in a woman in her 40s and 50s who underwent a “vampire” facial in the summer of 2018. She had a stage 3 infection and was hospitalized with an AIDS-defining illness.
“Incomplete customer records at the spa created significant difficulties during this investigation, requiring extensive outreach to identify potential cases,” the report said. authors research.
The investigation into the identification of infected people is still ongoing, so the number of people infected with HIV may increase.
