INFECTION CONNECTION

3 Women Got HIV From ‘Vampire Facials’ at Shady New Mexico Spa

The Albuquerque clinic was unlicensed and unsanitary, officials say.

So-called vampire facials at a shuttered spa in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have been linked to three cases of HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Two of the women tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS in 2018—while the third only discovered she was infected last year. “These are people who had no known risks for HIV acquisition,” said Anna Stadelman-Behar, a CDC epidemiologist told The Washington Post. “It was a shock to them definitely.” VIP Spa was shut down after the first client was diagnosed, and state inspectors found a raft of horrifying lapses: unlabeled tubes filled with blood, unwrapped syringes, and equipment being improperly reused. Public health investigators found that women with HIV had used the spa and theorized that reused needles or blood was the culprit. The facials involve injecting a client with their own blood through microneedles to supposedly spur the growth of collagen and new skin cells.