2 kids among victims: 179 sick with HIV in Baguio

BAGUIO CITY – The Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center has recorded 179 Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) cases with 4-year-old and  2-year-old  children as among the government hospital’s recent cases.

This was bared by Health officials May 17 in media forum on occasion of International AIDS Memorial Day, saying the number was based from 2006 to date.

A health expert said HIV or can be transmitted by an infected mother to her unborn child, thus this explained the two children being affected by HIV.

BGHMC medical specialist II, Dr. Maria Lorena Santos, said there are four ways in which HIV virus can be transmitted from one person to another.

These are through sexual contact, blood transfusion, sharing of needles (which is usual among drug users) and from a mother to a child.

THE BGHMC, she said, had been set as National HIV Screening and Treatment Center and it was here that if was found out the children got their HIV infections from their mothers, who didn’t know they were infected even before they got pregnant, she said.

Santos advised the sexually active, those with multiple partners and those who are engaged in risky sexual behavior to have themselves screened, not only for themselves but also for their future children.

Children, she said, have weaker immune system to fight such dreaded virus which has no cure yet and only being managed through retrovirals.

Santos said new cases of HIV infection are alarming and patients or infected persons are getting younger and younger.

She said of 179 cases recorded at BGHMC, 65 were 25 to 34 years old while 39 cases were 15 to 24 years of age.

HIV is a life-long disease and many people with HIV worldwide are dying because they are not properly monitored and not given right medication, Santos added.

In line with the DOH nationwide program, BGHMC provided free HIV testing and information drive last week. -- Carlito Dar