ROMANIAN prosecutors say eight young women have so far tested HIV positive after they discovered at the funeral of a local Romeo that he had been suffering from HIV.

It was also revealed that the search for victims of 25-year-old Daniel Decu had now widened to Italy after his mother admitted he had spent a year in the country apparently living a party lifestyle that left him sick when he returned to Romania and died a year later.

Daniel’s funeral, which was attended by many of his lovers, had turned into an angry shouting match when it was revealed he had been HIV positive.

It was also revealed that he’d had his first girlfriend at the age of 12, when his mother had given him a lecture on living with HIV and told him to make sure he always carried a condom with him.

And although he was registered as living with the condition, it only became known to the public when an autopsy was carried out and a coroner’s report published.

Incredibly, it was also revealed that when a local doctor in the town of Segarcea, in south-eastern Romania’s Dolj County, tried to warn people he was suffering from the disease, he was threatened with a lawsuit by the man’s mother.

Doctor Cornel Stanciu, their family physician, knew that Daniel was HIV positive and tried to make his health condition public after the young man had a relationship with his daughter.

But when Daniel’s mother Elena Secu, 45, found out what the doctor was doing, she had threatened to sue him unless it stopped.

media_camera Scare ... Dozens of young women in a Romanian town are awaiting the results of an HIV test after discovering at the funeral of a local Romeo that he was suffering from aids.

The doctor said: “I knew he had a lot of female friends but there was nothing I could do about it.”

The mother however says that all of the women that her son had relationships with knew that he had been suffering from HIV since he was little. She said: “They all knew, I don’t know why they are saying these things now?”

She added: “Dani went to the psychologist to prepare himself for living with the virus, and I told him he had to use protection, I was telling it to him from the age of 12. My boy had condoms in his pocket all the time.”

She said she welcomed the investigation ordered by prosecutors adding: “I want this case to be resolved, and for my boy to rest in peace in his grave. He died because of tuberculosis, not from any complications as a result of suffering from the HIV virus.”

However critics of the mother pointed out that tuberculosis was often a consequence of having the HIV virus, with about 25 per cent of deaths among HIV-positive people due to TB.

media_camera Segarcea is a small town in Dolj County, Romania, about 25 kilometres from Craiova. It has 8,000 residents and is famous for its white wines.

She also claimed that her son had been in good health despite living with the HIV virus, and had only started to get sick after deciding to move to Italy where he lived for a year. She said that when he came back from Italy he had seemed pale and sick and that a year after that he had died.

It was not known where he lived in Italy, or if he had continued his Romeo lifestyle there as well.

Some of the women in Romania had found out before the funeral that he had been living with the virus, and the eight people confirmed infected will be added to the two of them previously confirmed as being HIV-positive.

In total 40 women are known to have applied to take the test, although many more are suspected to have had the test done secretly in other counties.

Although it is impossible to take any action against the dead man, his mother and family are being investigated as well as others who knew about his condition, and said nothing.

AIDS remains the only disease specifically mentioned in a Romanian criminal law, where it says the transmission of the virus by a person who already knows he or she is infected can be punishable with a jail term of between five and 15 years.

However the law specifies that there is no need to inform a physical partner of the infection, but there is an obligation to practice safe sex.

Social media pictures show Daniel with a string of girls on his arm.

Nicolae Popa, the mayor of Segarcea, said: “The boy’s mother is to blame for the terrible situation that we now find ourselves in.

“It is only now that it has become clear that the family physician knew he was HIV positive and tried to make the situation public. When he started to do so he was threatened with a lawsuit by Daniel’s mother.”

Doctor Stanciu said: “I started to warn them, but from the moment they told me to stay silent and not say anything, I didn’t. I’m not surprised that we now are in the position that we are, because he had many female friends.”

The young man’s aunt Maria said: “Dani contacted the HIV virus at the Segarcea Hospital. At the time he was hospitalised several children were also infected. I know another three individuals that died, while others still live. My nephew is not guilty of anything. There are girls who had intimate relations with him, and the blood test came out negative so why is he to blame for those that are positive?”

Maria said Daniel found out he was HIV infected at the age of 5.

Originally published as Girlfriends get HIV bombshell at funeral