4-year-old boy in Zamboanga gets HIV
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - A four-year-old boy in Zamboanga peninsula was registered as the youngest victim in the country inflicted with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), according to the Department of Health (DOH) regional office here.
Clarisa Jose, DOH regional STI/AIDS program coordinator, said the victim was listed as one of the nine patients inflicted with the virus last October.
Jose, during the DOH-9 forum Tuesday, said the young patient whose identity was withheld for protection, got the HIV from his parents who engaged in unprotected sex.
DOH cannot determine yet how the HIV was transmitted since the victim’s mother was already dead while the father was living with another partner together with two children.
“We are bannered in the country to have the youngest victim,” Jose said due to unsafe sex practices.
Jose said DOH is providing free medicine and close monitoring of the child and the rest of the HIV victims.
She added the nine HIV cases were only few of the 159 cases registered with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) since January to October this year.
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