Three women discover they contracted HIV from a fashionable cosmetic procedure

Written in HEALTH he 4/26/2024 · 22:03 pm

Three North American women discovered that they contracted the HIV virus, responsible for AIDS, after undergoing a cosmetic procedure that became fashionable in several parts of the world. US federal authorities reported that the cases occurred in a clinic without authorization to operate in the city of Albuquerque, in the state of New Mexico.

The method applied to clients is the “vampire facial”, which consists of small injections of platelet-rich plasma into areas of the face, using micropuncture. According to the tracking carried out by the experts analyzing the incident, there is a group of four women and one man who presented an identical strain of HIV, but it is not yet clear why one of them was not confirmed as a victim of the procedure, even though she admitted that she had undergone it. . As for the man, he would have had sexual relations with one of the infected women who performed the “vampire facial”.

It all started after one of these women underwent the aesthetic procedure and shortly afterwards received a positive test for HIV, in 2018. She reported that she never maintained any risk behavior for the infection, which then led to an investigation by epidemiological authorities of the USA.

An inspection report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the clandestine clinic kept laboratory tubes with blood in an area without any conditions for such storage, even deposited near food in a refrigerator, as well as a trash basket with syringes. used and discarded irregularly. Authorities also found disposable equipment being reused at the site.

Although the risk of contamination of this type is low, experts stated that it is possible, especially in conditions such as those found in this clinic. Another investigation into the use of counterfeit Botox is also ongoing, but it is not clear from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statement whether the episode involves the same establishment.

The “vampire facial” is a procedure that has become very popular in recent years, especially after some celebrities, such as Kim Kardashian, revealed that they use it. Clinic employees confirmed to investigators that the other people involved in the research to track the first infected woman, in fact, had said that they had HIV after having undergone sessions of the practice between the years 2018 and 2023, also assuming that these were individuals who They claimed that they did not engage in risk behaviors for contamination by the virus that causes AIDS.