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Monday 10 December 2012

Hong Kong woman dies after beauty treatment


| 11 October 2012 | 0 Comments


HONG KONG: A woman in Hong Kong died after receiving treatment at a beauty parlor in the country, local media reported.
Hong Kong woman dies after controversial beauty treatment.


The 46-year-old woman died and three others are in critical condition after they received treatment that included blood transfusions, which has led government officials to demand an explanation over the lack of regulations in the city’s cosmetics industry.

The cases have prompted an investigation by police and medical authorities, and renewed calls by health experts for tighter regulation of Hong Kong’s beauty industry.

“Yes, the woman aged 46 died (yesterday morning) of septic shock,” a government spokeswoman said. Three others, aged 56, 59 and 60, were in hospital with the eldest in critical condition.

Usually, septic shock is caused by bacterial infection and can result in respiratory and organ failure, even death.

The women paid around HK$50,000 (US$6,400) for the procedure, which experts say is at best an experimental treatment for cancer patients and which has not shown to have any aesthetic application so far.

The procedure required their blood to be taken to isolate and culture certain types of immune cells. These “cytokine-induced killer cells” were then injected back into the women together with their own blood plasma.

Women in Hong Kong told Bikyamasr.com that “this treatment is not common and the government needs to end its use at all costs.”

Lim Yang, a local stylist said that “we have seen a lot of injuries and hospitalization as a result of this unnecessary and dangerous treatment, but the government has done little to intervene to stop it or regulate it.”

She and others are demanding the government here in Hong Kong make efforts to change policy on cosmetic shops and beauty parlors in order to ensure safety for patrons.

http://www.bikyamasr.com/79762/hong-kong-woman-dies-after-beauty-treatment/