Anorexia is considered to be a professional disease of many catwalk models. It leads to depression, weakness and to much more serious health problems. The amount of death cases caused by anorexia continues to grow.

 

A teenage model whose sister starved herself to death has also died of suspected anorexia.

 

Eliana Ramos, 18, collapsed six months after her sister Luisel had a heart attack during a fashion show and triggered an international debate over the use of size zero models on the catwalks.

 

Fashion bosses in Madrid and Milan have set a minimum body mass index for girls appearing in their shows in an effort to discourage starvation diets and eating disorders.

 

But bosses at London Fashion Week - which is now in full swing - have refused to follow suit. Eliana's death will add to the pressure on the industry.

 

The sisters' devastated family said Luisel, 20, had been told she could "make it big" if she lost a "significant" amount of weight and was "under much pressure and stress".

 

It appears her sister followed in her footsteps after collapsing at the home she shared with her grandmother.

 

She was found dead in her bedroom in her Montevideo home in Uruguay on Tuesday. A police source said: "The primary diagnosis is death due to symptoms of malnutrition." Her grandmother, who discovered her body, wept: "This has happened to me twice. The girl would not wake up. I went into the house and saw her eyes blank and her knees tucked up."

 

Several months ago Eliana, who was 5ft 7in tall, weighed 8st 10lb and had a BMI just over the minimum 18 set by Madrid fashion bosses.

 

But recently she had apparently been losing weight rapidly, although it was unclear whether she had been doing so deliberately to further her career.

 

She was spotted by modelling scouts when she was 16 and became one of the leading girls on the books of major Argentine agency Dotto Models.

Eliana's boss Pancho Dotto said of her death: "It is absurd that people are speaking about anorexia or bulimia in this tragic case.

"She had never had problems with her diet. It is obvious the sisters' deaths must be due to a genetic problem."

 

Eliana's death also comes three months after Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston, 21, died of anorexia on the eve of a Paris photoshoot after existing on a diet of apples and tomatoes.

 

A spokesman for the British Fashion Council, which organises London Fashion Week, said it was aware of Eliana's death but did not want to speculate on its cause. It insisted that regulation is neither "desirable nor enforceable".

 

 

Source: dailymail.co.uk

Prepared by Alexander Timoshik
Pravda.ru