Britons warned that Kim Kardashian-inspired ‘vampire facials’ at unregulated clinics pose a high risk of contracting HIV after three women in the US became infected

Brits looking for a more youthful face are being warned against using unregulated beauty clinics for so-called ‘vampire facials’ due to the risk of contracting HIV.

The treatment, also known as a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection, involves injecting a patient with samples of their own blood that have been passed into a centrifuge to filter out the protein-rich plasma that estheticians say can make skin look younger. to show.

Kim Kardashian, her sister Kourtney and Ferne McCann are among those receiving the treatments, but warnings are being issued after at least three women who also received the treatments at a spa in the US contracted HIV.

An investigation by the Center of Disease Control (CDC) concluded that the women likely contracted the virus due to “poor infection control practices” at the New Mexico spa they visited.

They may have contracted the disease by reusing unsterilized equipment, such as needles or vials used to store blood.

Unlike other parts of the world, Britain has no regulations on who can administer beauty treatments such as fillers, Botox and microneedling treatments such as injecting PRP.

Beauticians are typically trained with degree-level qualifications such as NVQs, but there is no requirement for them to be registered.

Campaigners for regulation of the beauty treatment industry have warned that Britons looking for cheap deals to improve their appearance from so-called ‘backstreet’ practitioners could be putting themselves at risk.

Patient safety campaigner Dawn Knight told MailOnline that the safety concerns raised by the CDC about the New Mexico spa are “all over Britain”.

“I’ve heard about needle sharing, about not throwing away partially used fillers to use them a second time, about dogs walking around the buildings — all unsafe and unsanitary practices,” she said.

‘Today anyone in Britain can practice aesthetics without training, without qualification. If you are not a healthcare professional, you are not required to even have insurance for these treatments in this country.

‘These people don’t understand the damage they can do. There is no accountability whatsoever.”

Britain is slowly stepping up efforts to regulate non-surgical cosmetic treatments after earlier fears.

In 2017, Public Health England said it had been made aware of three beauty salon workers in the North West who were injured while ‘using the same microdermabrasion machine with needles’. All three had to be tested for viruses – fortunately negative.

The UK government is currently considering how to impose a national licensing scheme for non-surgical cosmetic procedures in England, after the power to create one was added to the Health and Care Act in 2022.

Scotland and Wales have each previously held discussions about imposing similar arrangements under devolved powers.

But Ms Knight added that work on the scheme was ‘glacially slow’ and would take years after its introduction to have a good effect – while people are still bombarded with social media advertisements for cheap cosmetic procedures.

“The influence of social media and the advertising that people see, because you can even do these treatments on Klarna (buy now, pay later scheme)… there are no checks and balances whatsoever,” she added.

Ashton Collins, director of Save Face, a government-approved register of beauty treatment providers, has warned that people could unknowingly fall victim to ‘cowboy’ practitioners who cut costs by, for example, reusing equipment.

“There are thousands of these practitioners operating in Britain, often working from their own homes without inspection,” she said in comments from The times.

‘Therefore, the risk to the public in terms of the spread of blood-borne viruses or infections from needle sharing and non-sterile environments is actually very, very high.’

PRP is a form of microneedling in which blood is drawn from recipients and fed into a centrifuge that separates the platelet-rich plasma that can stimulate the skin’s natural healing processes.

PRP is then injected directly into the face via small needle injections into the face. Cosmetic doctors say the protein-rich extracts help tighten wrinkles and acne scars, giving those who get the treatment a more youthful appearance.

Kim Kardashian is one of those who underwent the treatment in 2012 – but later said on her now-defunct personal blog that she will never have it again – because she had to undergo it without painkillers because she was pregnant.

‘It was really hard and painful for me. It was honestly the most painful thing ever! It is the one treatment I will never do again,” she said.

‘Even though it wasn’t for me, I know it has so many benefits for your skin. Kourtney is a big fan and I know a lot of other people who love it too.”

But at least three women who used the VIP Beauty Salon and Spa in Albuquerque, New Mexico to get the age-delaying treatment came away with HIV, the CDC concluded in a new report.

The first woman tested positive for HIV in the summer of 2018 after undergoing a vampire facial. She had no history of injectable drug use, recent blood transfusions, or recent sexual contact with anyone with HIV.

The second and third women also had a vampire facial treatment in 2018. One was diagnosed with HIV in 2019, the other in 2023, when she was taken to hospital with severe symptoms.

A separate woman and man also tested positive for HIV. The woman got a vampire facial at the spa, while the man contracted the infection from having sex with her. He never received any services from the spa.

The owner of the New Mexico spa, 62-year-old Maria de Lourdes Ramos De Ruiz, is serving a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence.

Last Last year the NHS launched a campaign to encourage people to get tested for Hepatitis C, amid fears that tens of thousands of people are unknowingly living with the disease after contracting it from unsterilized beauty equipment.