Recently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered a vicious incident in the medical aesthetic industry: some beauty-loving customers underwent the famous "vampire treatment" and ended up contracting the HIV virus!
This is the first recorded case in the United States of a customer contracting HIV due to medical aesthetics, and the "vampire treatment", which was once a particularly famous method of skin care and medical beauty, has also been bombarded.
At that time, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exposed the malignant infection of a beauty spa in New Mexico, and three customers of the spa tested positive for HIV.
Vampire Facial Therapy, known as the Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Facial, involves the beautician to draw the customer's blood, then use a centrifuge to separate the platelet-rich plasma from it, and then inject the plasma back into the customer's face through tiny needle.
This treatment is said to "rejuvenate the skin and repair problems such as wrinkles, sunburn or acne scars." ”
And the reason why it is called the terrifying vampire name is because of the bloody mouth on its face when it is first done - piercing the face is a must for this skincare treatment.
In 2013, Kim Kardashian, a reality TV super-influencer who had just become famous at the time, strongly recommended this bloody treatment: YYDS!
As a super surgical plastic surgery template in Europe and the United States, Kardashian's "personal test is effective" real-name certification naturally sent this therapy to the pinnacle of her career! (although Kardashian publicly said a few years later that she had stopped receiving this treatment because she couldn't stand the pain)
After the Kardashians, some celebrities also publicly recommended this therapy.
For more than a decade, "vampire facial therapy" is still quietly popular among the people, and beauty lovers who come to suffer from it out of their own pockets are convinced: how painful it is when it is done, how good the effect will be after doing it.
However, because of the use of centrifuges and the process that tests the skills of an esthetician, it costs $1,000-$2,000 to do a "vampire" in a regular skin clinic.
Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why many cheap beauty lovers go underground and go to some institutions that seem to be professional, but in fact they are reluctant to use even disposable needles to do experiments...
62岁的玛丽亚 (Maria de Lourdes Ramos De Ruiz) 就是这次出事机构的老板,她的诊所提供"吸血鬼疗法",胸部和臀部整形,脂肪团治疗。
Maria describes herself as a graduate of the University of Phoenix, as well as an esthetician's license, and has specialized training in Botox and "vampire facial therapy."
Some middle-aged and elderly clients trust Maria very much, and the clinic has hundreds of clients.
However, in the summer of 2018, the local police received a report from a middle-aged female client of the clinic who had tested positive for HIV after a "vampire therapy" session here, and that she was sure she had not been exposed to other sources of infection.
The police and people from the CDC raided Maria's spa and were shocked.
On the clinic's kitchen counter, unpackaged syringes are scattered around, as well as in drawers, and it looks like they're being reused all the time.
Open the kitchen refrigerator of the clinic, and the food is placed in it along with the blood sampling tube, which does not have any label with information such as the name of the blood owner and the date of sampling.
Some blood sampling tubes even show signs of being reused.
In the kitchen sink, there are signs of blood being poured out of the sink.
The entire SPA does not have a single steam autoclave to sterilize equipment that must be reused.
And Maria's diploma was also found to be fake, as was the certificate of qualification of the training certificate, and her beautician license was found to have expired as early as 5 years ago...
It is clear that Maria's clinic did not use disposable needles and caused tragedy by allowing HIV-positive blood to enter healthy customers...
Maria's shop was immediately shut down, and a few months after the first patient reported the case, a second female customer also discovered that she was infected.
In 2022, facing several felony charges, including practicing medicine without a license, Maria pleaded guilty but was sentenced to only 3.5 years in prison, plus four years of probation.
But that's not all, in the first few months of the year, three new victims came out to accuse Maria, two of whom were former clients of Maria.
Through blood tests, officials found that two of the three had been infected with HIV for a long time, and the two were ex-couples, so it was determined that the source of contamination in Maria's clinic was this "patient No. 1".
Because I wanted to look better and save money, I didn't strictly review the qualifications of beauty institutions, so I ended up with HIV.
Now, in addition to this special case, the risk factor of the medical cosmetology industry has also caused netizens to worry:
"That's the nightmare itself. If the same strain is detected, they are definitely using the same contaminated blood. Committed 20 felonies and only been sentenced for a few years? Wow"
"The beauty and skincare industry is the least regulated industry. Most of these operators are non-medical personnel or non-doctors. The procedures that should be done in these centres should be regulated, but the reality is that there is no regulation or oversight.
Same as a tattoo parlor. Hepatitis C and HIV are two of the most common infections in these places. ”
"This is done in aesthetic clinics, which are run by nurse practitioners, but they have absolutely no training and no expertise in performing invasive procedures on outpatients.
This involves drawing blood from a person, then spinning it apart to obtain plasma and remove red blood cells, and injecting the plasma into the patient's skin. There are up to 20 multiple puncture wounds on the surface of this skin.
They should be screened for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV, but most of the time they don't.
The procedure should be banned and the loopholes for medical aesthetic surgery should be closed.
It's an impending disaster, and I don't know how the medical board can ignore it all. ”
Everyone has a love for beauty, but in order to become beautiful, it has led to irreparable consequences, which is a tragedy...