Living in Peru : your everyday companion

(LIP-ir) -- Chief of Lima's Public Defense Office, Eugenia Fernán-Zegarra, recommended today that Peru's government make itself responsible for the AIDS treatment 44-year-old Judith Rosana Rivera Díaz has to undergo.

Judith Rivera was infected with the AIDS virus after she underwent a blood transfusion at Daniel Alcides Carrión Hospital in Callao.

In addition, Fernán-Zegarra stated that Peru's Ministry of Health (MINSA) needed to improve its lacking blood donor selection process.

"The hospital and any other state run medical establishment in which Eugenia decides to be treated should meet the health requirements she requests. It has to cover her medical treatment, the monitoring of the infection she has contracted, checkups and diverse exams," stated Fernán-Zegarra to Peru's El Comercio online newspaper.

According to Fernán-Zegarra, AIDS reduces your defense system and makes a persons body more vulnerable to other sicknesses. Therefore, the state should cover "any sickness she gets from now on."

Through Peru's RPP news, Judith Rivera, stated she had been infected with the AIDS virus at Daniel Alcides Carrión Hospital in Callao. In addition, she claims to not have received any type of aid.

Peru's Minister of Health, Carlos Vallejos, stated today that Peru's Ministry of Health would make itself responsible for Rivera's treatment.