The 23-year-old woman, who has not been named, visited the salon in June 2023 for a beauty treatment which saw her nails cut, filed, and shaped but she left with more than she bargained for
The 23-year-old woman is taking a nail salon to court and suing for £1.4 million ($1.75 million) after she claims she contracted the herpes simplex virus during a treatment. The unnamed woman says she visited PDX Nails, a salon in Portland, and asked for an acrylic nail manicure.
During the procedure, the woman claims the nail technician didn’t wear gloves and stored all the tools and drill bits needed in an ‘Altoids mint tin’. Days later, after the manicure, the woman noticed what looked like an infection and swelling on her right index finger around the nail and cuticle, and started feeling unwell.
After having a virtual health check, court papers say she visited A&E and had a swab test which showed she had herpetic whitlow, also known as genital herpes. In the court papers, she states that she didn’t have the virus before the nail appointment and added that she has had painful outbreaks of infection since the diagnosis.
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The lawsuit accuses the salon of negligence and illegal business practices, with the woman seeking $1.75 million in damages. She says that since she contracted the infection, she has suffered from regular flare-ups and experienced lots of pain.
She also notes that the sores on her fingers mean she has to cover them up with plasters, which have led to lots of awkward comments and questions from people leaving her uncomfortable and embarrassed.
Talking to Oregon Live, she confessed: “The flare-ups can be super, super painful. It’s always on my mind. People have asked: ‘What happened to your finger?’. “I don’t want to tell them what it really is because it’s really embarrassing.”
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It’s not the first time a salon has been forced to pay out after a customer contracted an infection. In 2002, a woman in Colorado got $ 3.1 million when she caught herpes from a manicure that used dirty tools. In 2023, a woman in Florida got $ 1.75 million from a salon after she got an infection that made her lose her leg.
Herpes is usually passed on through sexual contact, but you can also get it from touching things that have the virus on them, like toilet seats and bedding. You might start seeing signs of herpes two to 12 days after you catch it. These can include painful blisters, fever, swelling, and muscle aches. If you don’t get treatment, it can lead to worse blisters on the infected area – usually in the mouth or around the private parts.
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