[PHNO-sb] SARAH JANE, AIDS VICTIM, DYING
solv...@csi.com.ph
Manila, June 10, 2000 - Sarah Jane Salazar, the first Filipino to give AIDS a human face is now comatose and could die soon.
Health Secretary Alberto Romualdez said Salazar was admitted to the San Lazaro Hospital (SLH) Thursday night diagnosed to be suffering from pneumonia, tuberculosis, herpes, and also fungal and viral infections.
"Sarah Jane is in very bad shape," Romualdez said, adding that the level of Salazar's immunity is very low, as manifested by the various AIDS complications she has developed. Government doctors are giving Salazar anti-fungal agents to enable her to fight the infections. Her vital signs are still stable, Romualdez said, so, "anything can happen,"
The health chief expressed sadness over the health condition of Salazar as he noted how Salazar helped the Department of Health's anti-AIDs programs.
Salazar was the first Filipino HIV patient to go public and give the disease a human face and was hired as government AIDS educator after she went public in 1993.
"DOH is very sad because Sarah started and has contributed a lot to the government's AIDS awareness campaign," Romualdez said.
Prior to her confinement at the SLH, Salazar was confined at the National Mental Hospital where she stayed since 1998 after she was diagnosed to be suffering from a psychological disorder.
Salazar used to stay at the SLH-AIDS pavilion together with her teenage partner, Ritchie Jr. with whom she bore a baby boy. She has two children, both are negative of the AIDS-causing virus.
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