New Mexico health officials say New HIV infections have been linked to a salon that performed so-called vampire facials nearly five years after the business went out of business.
The Albuquerque salon, called the VIP Spa, was closed in September 2018 after at least two clients tested positive for HIV after facials.
In March, another former client tested positive for HIV, according to a Press release of the New Mexico Department of Health. To date, a total of five HIV infections have been identified among people “with direct or indirect connection to the services provided at the VIP Spa,” a spokesman for the department said.
The most recent case prompted the department to reopen its previous investigation into the spa. Health officials are now asking former clients of the salon who received any type of injection-related service there to get tested for HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. Even clients who previously tested negative must be retested. the test, the department said.
VIP Spa offered Botox injections and vampire facials, a procedure that involves drawing blood from another part of the body, usually the arm, separating the platelet-rich plasma, pricking the facial skin with microneedles, and then applying the plasma to the face. expensive. The process aims to make the skin look fresher and lessen the appearance of wrinkles, sun damage, or acne scars.
According to the health department, after the initial cases of HIV were confirmed in 2018, an inspection by it and other agencies “identified practices that could spread blood-borne infections, such as HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C.” to the clients”. More than 100 former salon clients were tested in 2018 and 2019 as part of that research.
The spokesman for the department said it is unclear how HIV was transmitted, but that “genetic sequencing of HIV cases confirms a unique and highly related cluster of HIV infections among former VIP Spa clients with no other known risk factors.” “.
The spa’s owner, María Ramos de Ruiz, pleaded guilty in June 2022 to five felony counts for practicing medicine without a license, the health department said. She was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison in October 2022, NBC affiliate Albuquerque KOB4 reported, and is currently at the Springer Correctional Center.
In 2018, Ruiz told KOB4 that he was cooperating with investigators and had turned over his client list to the state.
“If I have to stop doing it, or something I have to change, I’ll change it. Happily, I will.” she told the outlet at the time, after the health department closed the spa.
The department said Wednesday that in the case of the HIV infection reported in March, “the only self-reported HIV risk exposure was a vampire facial” at VIP Spa in 2018.
To facilitate the new round of testing, the department is hosting three free walk-in testing events for former VIP Spa clients on July 15 and 18 in Albuquerque.
“It is very important that we spread the word and remind people who received any type of injection related to the services provided at the VIP Spa to get free and confidential tests,” said Dr. Laura Parajón, undersecretary of the health department. in a sentence.
