Despite the fact that COVID-19 has claimed the lives of thousands of people in Panama and the world, the other diseases have not stopped.
In the province of Colón, for the first half of 2020, at least 43 cases of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus ( HIV ) have been registered, of which 10 have been detected in pregnant women, 2 in newborn babies and a late case of a 4-year-old girl who was also found to have HIV.
This province reports more than 20 deaths from HIV.
The
coronavirus has not been a disease that has hit our patients very hard. We have those who have had
coronavirus but they have done quite well, they have recovered, however we were able to report three deaths from
coronavirus, who were patients with HIV, explained Dr. Víctor Peñafiel, coordinator of the Ministry's retroviral clinic of health.
He added that in the province they count about 15 patients who have been reported with a diagnosis of
COVID-19.
In Panama there are more than 29,000 people reported with HIV / AIDS, of which 12,000 have HIV and 17,000 are in the AIDS stage. 61% of them have already died.