According to a statement from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this marks the first time that HIV transmission through cosmetic injections has ever been documented. The New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) was notified of a woman who had been diagnosed with HIV infection with no know risk factors — she reported no injection drug use, recent blood transfusions, or recent sexual contact with anyone other than her current partner. She did say that she underwent a microneedling facial where the client’s blood is drawn, the blood is separated into plasma and cells, and the platelet-rich plasma is injected into the client’s face, a procedure nicknamed a “vampire facial.” In 2018, NMDOH and CDC officials investigated VIP Spa in Albuquerque and found it was operating without proper licenses at multiple locations. The facility also did not have an appointment scheduling system with client information. Investigators cross-referenced names and telephone numbers from consent forms, handwritten appointment records, and telephone contacts to create a list of potentially affected clients, the CDC said. The team identified 59 clients at risk for HIV exposure. By spring 2023, five patients were identified who had contracted HIV infections from the spa, including four women and a man who was a sexual partner of one of the women and had never been to the spa. The spa’s former owner, Maria de Lourdes Ramos De Ruiz, is serving a three-and-a-half year prison sentence following a guilty plea in 2022 to five counts of practicing medicine without a license. Investigators found numerous health violations at the spa, including blood and injectables stored in the kitchen refrigerator alongside food; unwrapped syringes strewn about on counters, in drawers, and discarded in trash cans; disposable electric desiccator tips that were reused; and unlabeled tubes containing blood on a kitchen counter. When done properly by licensed practitioners, cosmetic treatments like microneedling should carry no risk of HIV transmission. The CDC report shows, however, that infection control practices at spas are crucial preventing the spread of bloodborne pathogens.Multiple people were infected with HIV after cosmetic “vampire facials” at an unlicensed spa in New Mexico.
