It’s confirmed: four women were infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) at a beauty center in New Mexico, United States. According to the results of the survey of centers for disease control and prevention (CDC), the contamination would have occurred during a treatment called vampire lift, which the manager was not authorized to perform.
Only a cosmetic doctor can do a vampire lift
The vampire lift is a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection technique, generally to rejuvenate the skin of the face, décolleté or neck. Concretely, the practitioner takes a blood sample from the patient, isolates the plasma – the liquid which makes up the blood – and reinjects it into the desired area.
Problem: this technique must be carried out by an aesthetic doctor, as recalled Paris Matchand not by beauty centers or SPAs which therefore offer it illegally.
According to the CDC investigation, it was not only the four clients of the beauty center who were infected. Indeed, the sexual partner of one of them also tested positive for HIV, which allows the CDC to affirm that five cases are linked to this center. All are between 40 and 60 years old and received the diagnosis between summer 2018 and spring 2023.
In 2018, this New Mexico beauty center was closed by the CDC. The decision was based on the findings of an inspection, which revealed unsafe sanitation practices:
- Tubes of blood and injectables, like botox, stored in a classic kitchen refrigerator with food
- Unwrapped syringes found in drawers or thrown into regular trash cans.
- Syringes that would have been used on several clients, without having been sufficiently sterilized.
59 people potentially infected with HIV
In addition to the cases identified by authorities, 59 customers are considered at risk of exposure by the CDC. Among them, 20 had a vampire lift and 39 received other types of injections at the New Mexico beauty center.
The CDC investigation has just been published and may result in a new trial for the beauty center manager. In June 2022, she was already sentenced to three and a half years in prison for “practicing medicine without a license.”
Illegal aesthetic medicine practices do not only concern the United States. In France, in 2023, there were 104 reports of illegal acts for aesthetic purposes, mainly hyaluronic acid injections, an increase of almost 50% compared to 2022, according to figures from the National Council of order of doctors reported by The Parisian.
