Many abnormalities when 42 people in a commune in Phu Tho are infected with HIV

Mr. Hoang Dinh Canh, Deputy Head of the Department of HIV/AIDS Prevention (Ministry of Health), said that authorities are investigating the cause of 42 people in Kim Thuong commune, Tan Son district, Phu Tho, being infected with HIV.

In terms of epidemiology, analysis of the current situation of the infected group here shows that there are many strange and unusual problems. For example, the patients are mainly women (26 people). Meanwhile, in the whole country, the proportion of women infected with HIV is only 1/3.

Many abnormalities when 42 people in a commune in Phu Tho are infected with HIV.

The age of the patients in the commune is also quite strange. The youngest is an 18-month-old girl, but there is an elderly person who is 80 years old. The parents of the 18-month-old baby are not infected. Next to the baby's house, there is a couple who have HIV and psoriasis but they do not know it. Some people think that they may have been infected while working in Hanoi.

"Kim Thuong is a commune with a high number of HIV patients, a potential epidemic hotbed because if an epidemic occurs and is not known, it will spread very strongly," said Mr. Canh. He believes thatIt is impossible that 42 people "suddenly" got HIV.

Medical history monitoring shows that Kim Thuong commune detects a few cases of HIV infection every year. The first patient was in 2012, since 2017 the number of patients has increased rapidly. Recently, one person died of AIDS while being treated at the hospital.

Mr. Canh also assessed that the number of 42 patients in a commune is a lot but not the highest. In fact, the whole country has 60 communes with more than 50 people infected with HIV. The ward with the highest number of HIV patients in the country is in District 8, Ho Chi Minh City with 701 people, 125 deaths. The commune with the most infected people is in Muong Lay district, Dien Bien province with 142 HIV patients.

In Tan Son district of Phu Tho, Minh Dai commune also has 46 infected people, My Thuan commune has 31 patients. Tan Son is the district with the 5th highest number of HIV infected people among 13 districts of the province.

HIV is transmitted through three ways: blood, sexual intercourse, and from mother to child. There is currently no basis to confirm whether or not HIV is transmitted through the use of shared medical services. The police have begun an investigation. The health sector is also conducting epidemiological and dialectical research.

For now, people who have been diagnosed with HIV need to be treated immediately. After just 3 months of treatment according to the regimen, the concentration of HIV virus in the blood will decrease. The patient will be healthy again and the possibility of transmitting it to others will be low.

Previously, in Kim Thuong commune, many people were extremely confused when they learned that they were infected with HIV. Many people thought that the patient was infected with HIV due to medical examination and treatment and sharing needles with a local medical staff. This doctor affirmed that he did not share needles with patients.