ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A scary warning has been issued from the state Department of Health for customers who have been to one particular spa in Albuquerque.
The health department wants customers who have gotten so-called “vampire facials” to get HIV tests.
VIP Spa has been in business since at least 2013, according to its Facebook page. Now, the Department of Health has shut it down.
VIP Spa sits on the corner of Tijeras and Ninth Street.
On the door of the spa on Monday is a note that claims a family emergency has forced them to cancel appointments through the week.
However, the Department of Health has a much different story.
The health department and the state’s cosmetology board inspected the spa Friday evening. That’s when they discovered practices at the spa could spread blood-borne infections such as HIV and hepatitis B and C.
“We undertook the inspection because a client of the VIP Spa developed an infection that may have resulted from a procedure performed at the spa,” said Dr. Michael Landen, DOH State Epidemiologist.
“Honestly, it made me sick to my stomach right away. Just everything starts coming to mind. The regrets, not knowing that you trusted someone so much. You just pretty much trust that everything was going to be fine,” said a former customer of VIP Spa.
That client was not the only customer of VIP Spa that KRQE News 13 reached out to who said hearing the news made them feel sick to their stomach.
The Department of Health is urging anyone who has received what’s known as a “vampire facial” or any other injection-related procedure at the spa to get tested as soon as possible, especially if they got the procedure in May or June.
A “vampire facial” is a non-surgical facial where a patient’s blood is drawn, then components of the blood are injected back into the face using microneedles.
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