Brazil's HIV/AIDS Prevention Efforts Appear to Be Working
Originally published by Reuters Health, May 21, 2002
BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) — Up to 25% fewer Brazilians contracted HIV last year than in 2000, a sign that a controversial program involving condom and needle distribution is working, the government said on Monday.
The estimated number of new HIV/AIDS cases in Brazil likely dropped to around 15,000 last year, down from 20,000 the year before, according to government estimates issued ahead of a final tally.
Brazil's success in keeping the overall infection rate below 1% is being attributed to a free antiretroviral drug policy, bold safe-sex campaigns and treatment for drug addicts. The low infection rate defies dire forecasts from the 1980s on how the epidemic would ravage the world's largest country of Catholics, for whom condom use is officially banned.
Brazil has also enraged the pharmaceutical industry with its policy of developing copies of patented drugs and using the copies as bargaining chips—without putting the drugs on the market—to force big firms to slash prices.
Paulo Roberto Teixeira, a top government AIDS official, told a news conference on Monday, that new HIV infections in men caused by intravenous drug use fell to 14% in the first 9 months of last year compared with 19% in all of 2000.
"Intravenous drug users were the biggest problem for our program. The numbers had stabilized up to now, and now, for the first time, they are falling," Teixeira, head of the National Program to Combat Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS, said. "It was a controversial campaign, difficult to execute, but it shows some undeniable positive results."
The program appeared to break some taboos in a region where politicians strike tough poses against drug abuse and religious leaders typically condemn condom use.
While the declining overall trend underscores Brazil's winning fight against HIV/AIDS, Teixeira said the number of cases among heterosexual women continued to grow, especially those who are married or have a long-term partner.
"They have a sensation that they are safe, that they are not at risk, and that makes them vulnerable," Teixeira said.
