An 8-year-old girl with 25 weeks of gestation has been in the maternity wing of the Santo Tomás Hospital (HST) for approximately a week reports TVN. Her pregnancy was revealed when she was taken to a Health Clinic for a check-up.

The case, the first to be detected in Panama, fell like a " bomb” for personnel of the HST and the Dr. José Renán Esquivel Children's Hospital who were activated to provide the girl with all the physical and emotional support she needs during and after the pregnancy process.

The national coordinator of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Program of the Ministry of Health (Minsa), Geneva González, said that it is the first time that such an early pregnancy is known.

“ An 8-year-old girl means that she has precocious puberty. She had her precocious puberty and perhaps that is why they did not even realize that she was pregnant , "said González.