New Mexico ‘Vampire Facial’ Spa Linked to HIV Instances

The New Mexico Division of Well being is urging former prospects of the now-defunct VIP Magnificence Salon and Spa in Albuquerque to get examined for HIV and different bloodborne infections. Well being officers have recognized a number of new instances of HIV this 12 months tied to companies supplied by the spa, together with so-called “vampire facials.” The spa was shut down in 2018 over unsafe practices that uncovered prospects to those infections.

Vampire facials are a sort of microneedling process, which puncture the pores and skin with tiny needles in an try to stimulate therapeutic and collagen manufacturing within the surrounding space. In a vampire facial, platelet-rich blood is then added to the pores and skin to ostensibly increase this therapeutic capability, inflicting a dramatic blood-soaked look.

There’s solely limited evidence suggesting that platelet-rich blood can present any further skincare advantages. However the process itself ought to be usually low danger, for the reason that blood is meant to be sourced from the identical particular person present process the facial. Nonetheless, if the instruments used for a vampire facial aren’t sterilized correctly between prospects, there may be the potential for cross-contamination. And that seems to be precisely what occurred on the VIP Magnificence Salon and Spa.

About 5 years in the past, the New Mexico Division of Well being and the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Division, Barbers and Cosmetologists Board carried out an investigation into the spa, figuring out practices there that might have unfold bloodborne infections like HIV. The spa completely closed in September 2018 in consequence. Greater than 100 former prospects had been examined for these infections over the subsequent two years, with two instances of HIV doubtlessly tied to the spa found in 2019. And in June 2022, based on the well being division, the proprietor of the spa pleaded responsible to 5 felony counts of practising drugs with out a license.

Sadly, the Division of Well being’s Infectious Illness Bureau obtained a report this 12 months of a newly recognized HIV case—one with no self-reported danger components aside from having gotten a vampire facial on the spa in 2018. The case led the division to reopen their investigation and so they have since found a number of different HIV instances instantly or not directly linked to the spa.

Well being officers are advising everybody who ever obtained an injection-related service on the VIP Spa, together with vampire facials, to hunt out HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C lab testing. Importantly, even those that initially examined destructive through the preliminary investigation are being requested to get retested.

“It’s crucial that we unfold the phrase and remind individuals who obtained any sort of injection-related to companies supplied on the VIP Spa to come back in totally free and confidential testing,” mentioned Laura Parajon, deputy secretary for the New Mexico Division of Well being, in a statement.

The New Mexico Division of Well being has organized three walk-in testing occasions for former prospects this month on the South Valley Public Well being workplace in Albuquerque, two of that are nonetheless obtainable. Individuals must also have the ability to schedule free and confidential testing at every other public well being workplace in New Mexico. And details about different testing companies situated within the state might be discovered here.