Doctors in Türkiye are urging people seeking cosmetic injections to check products and practitioners carefully after a university hospital in Antalya treated 16 patients for botulinum toxin poisoning, Hürriyet reported on Oct. 13.
Neurologists at the university hospital said the 16 cases had been seen over the past three months after cosmetic Botox procedures, NTV reported a day earlier. Some patients needed ventilator support and three were treated in intensive care. Seven patients admitted to the neurology clinic in the space of a week were reported to the authorities as forensic cases, and investigators are expected to establish where and by whom the injections were given.
Symptoms included difficulty speaking, swallowing and breathing, severe muscle weakness, drooping eyelids and double vision. No clinic or salon has been publicly identified, and no detentions have been reported.
Suspected fake or smuggled products
Dermatologist Dr. Makbule Dündar told Hürriyet the cases most likely involved counterfeit or smuggled products injected in the wrong places or in excessive amounts by unqualified people. Smuggled vials may contain much more active toxin than their labels state, she said, so standard dose calculations may not apply.
Improper use can cause iatrogenic botulism, in which the toxin spreads and can paralyse the muscles used for breathing. Antitoxin should ideally be given within about 48 hours of the first symptoms, and patients with breathing problems need hospital care.
Doctors quoted by NTV noted that a regulation change in January 2025 allowed all physicians to carry out certain aesthetic procedures after short certification courses.
How to protect yourself
Dündar advised getting injections only at licensed healthcare facilities, never at home or in beauty salons, and confirming that the person injecting is a physician. Patients can ask to see the box, product name and manufacturer, and check the package’s QR code against the national Drug Tracking System (İTS), run by the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (TİTCK).
Warning signs include unusually low prices, refusal to show the product or serial number, mismatched batch numbers or altered expiry dates, and vague answers about where the product came from.
Anyone who develops breathing or swallowing difficulty, slurred speech, voice changes, double vision or spreading weakness after an injection should call 112 immediately.
The warning is relevant to Türkiye’s large health tourism sector, which draws foreign visitors for aesthetic treatments. International patients are advised to use facilities authorised by the Health Ministry for health tourism.
Sources
- Güzellik uğruna ölümcül risk: Ambalaja bile güvenmeyin! (Hürriyet)
- Antalya’da sahte botoks alarmı. 16 kişi hastanelik oldu, 3’ü yoğun bakımda (NTV)
Photo: Sharon Hahn Darlin / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
