FRIDAY, July 12, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Seventeen women in nine states have fallen ill after getting fake Botox shots, with 13 of them landing in the hospital and one requiring a ventilator, a new report warns. In the , published Thursday by the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers provided alarming details of patients getting injections outside of a medical setting and then falling ill a few days later. In one instance, four women attended a gathering at a relative’s home in Tennessee to get Botox injected into their faces to smooth fine lines and wrinkles about three days before their symptoms began. An investigation later showed the injected product was counterfeit and was administered by a person who was not licensed to do so.
“In some cases, providers were concerned about patients’ breathing to the point where they were admitting them to intensive care units to be able to monitor them more closely,” report author , a medical director at the Tennessee Department of Health, told . She called the situation a “perfect storm.” “We were seeing the injections happening in homes from people who weren’t licensed, and there was counterfeit product,” Thomas said.
One of the most frightening cases detailed in the report involved a Colorado woman who got what she thought was Botox. Her vision soon blurred, and she became unusually weak. Nine days went by before she was hospitalized with trouble swallowing and breathing, and doctors had to i.