A person has recently tested positive for HIV after receiving a

“vampire facial”

procedure at a New Mexico spa that has since been shut down, NY Post reported. 

VIP Spa in Albuquerque was shut down in September 2018 by the New Mexico Department of Health after 2 people tested positive for HIV. Now as of recently, a new case has been reported of a former customer who tested positive for the virus after receiving the same procedure. The facial, which cost $100 to do, is done by taking a person’s blood and then reinjecting parts of the blood back into the skin via micro-needling.

DOH and the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department discovered that the facility was conducting business in a way that jeopardized

“the spread of blood-borne infections such as HIV,”

reports reveal. 

Maria de Lourdes Ramos de Ruiz, who worked at the spa conducted vampire facials without a medical license, and the spa’s owner, only had a cosmetologist license, which had expired in 2013, state investigators found, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Ruiz, 59, was charged with

“racketeering, fraud, five counts of practicing medicine without a license, six counts of money laundering, four counts of tax evasion, and seven counts of willful failure to collect and pay taxes.” 

Over 100 former VIP Spa clients were tested for the virus, following the investigation. Due to the new case an investigation has been reopened. Health officials are urging anyone who had services at the VIP Spa to get tested for HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C.

“It’s very important that we spread the word and remind people who received any kind of injection related to services provided at the VIP Spa to come in for free and confidential testing,”

said Dr. Laura Parajon, deputy secretary for DOH.  

#Clique, what are your thoughts?