A dermatologist in New Taipei City said that lipstick and lip balm products should not be shared, after a young woman contracted herpes from applying lip balm on display at the counter of a chain pharmacy.
The unnamed college student, 22, only used the store’s lip balm on her upper lip, but painful sores broke out three days later, Chao Chao-ming (趙昭明) was quoted as saying by local online media outlet ETToday on Saturday.
As sores only appeared on the woman’s upper lip — causing it to swell to nearly the size of “a sausage” — and she had not reported any stressful event or an abnormal sleep pattern, it was likely just a case of contaminated lip balm, Chao said, adding that the recovery time would be about a week.
Infections caused by sharing cosmetics is a common problem, Chao said, adding that he previously treated a woman whose face became inflamed after using her assistant’s skin ointment during a business trip to China.
Herpes simplex is one of the diseases that can be contracted via shared lip balm, he said, adding that yeast or fungal infections can spread to the respiratory system or digestive tract, causing more serious health problems.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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