Federal health officials say that three women who got “vampire facials” at an unlicensed medical spa in New Mexico were later diagnosed with HIV. They are thought to be the first people to get the virus through a cosmetic treatment using needles.
As part of last week’s Morbidity and Mortality Report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that they looked into the clinic from 2018 to 2023 and found that it reused one-time-use disposable tools.
It is known that HIV can be spread from contaminated blood through unclean injections, but the study said this is the first evidence of possible infections occurring during cosmetic services.
Needles are used for a lot of famous cosmetic procedures, like Botox to smooth out wrinkles and fillers to make lips fuller. A “vampire facial,” also known as platelet-rich plasma microneedling, involves taking a client’s own blood, separating its components, and then injecting plasma into the face with tiny needles to make the skin look younger. Needles are also needed for tattoos.
It was reported to the New Mexico Department of Health in the summer of 2018 that an HIV test on a woman in her 40s showed she had no known risk factors. This led to an investigation into the spa. The woman said she was exposed to needles during the treatment at the clinic in the spring.
When the investigation began in the fall of 2018, the spa had to close. The owner was charged with practicing medicine without a license.
The study showed how important it is to require businesses that offer cosmetic procedures with needles to follow infection control rules, the report said.
It also said that bad record keeping slowed down the investigation and that companies that offer these kinds of services should do a better job of keeping records so that clients can be called later.
