HEALTH: Central America, Caribbean Post Highest Rates of HIV/AIDS

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 8 2000 (IPS) - Although a full one-third of the 1.6 million people living with the AIDS virus in Latin America and the Caribbean are concentrated in Brazil, the countries of the Caribbean and Central America have the highest proportion of HIV- positive individuals in the region.

The most alarming situation is found in Haiti, where 5.17 percent of adults are infected with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), the joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) reported at a Latin American regional conference that opened Tuesday in Río de Janeiro.

Following Haiti in terms of the proportion of adults infected with HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean are the Bahamas (4.13 percent), Guyana (3.01), the Dominican Republic (2.8), Belize (2.01), Honduras (1.93), Panama (1.54) and Guatemala (1.38 percent), of the 27 countries studied.

At the other end of the spectrum are Nicaragua, Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia and Cuba, all of which report proportions of under 0.2 percent.

Brazil ranks 14th in the region, with 0.57 percent of its adult population infected, although it accounts for a total of 540,000 HIV-positive individuals, the largest absolute number in Latin America and the Caribbean.

However, Brazil’s prevention programme has set an example in the region, said UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot. Six years ago, the rate at which the virus causing AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) was spreading gave rise to projections that the country would have twice the number of infected individuals this year than are currently estimated.

While Brazil’s prevention campaigns averted disaster, this country of 168 million is an exception in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the epidemic has not reached the severe levels seen in Africa, but where there is little awareness about the gravity of the threat, Piot warned.

Piot also criticised the Catholic Church in the region for opposing the use of condoms and for making “unacceptable” claims such as the allegation that condoms do not ensure protection.

But Paulo Teixeira, coordinator of the Brazilian Health Ministry’s National Programme on Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS, pointed out that there were Catholic church groups that actually helped distribute condoms in Brazil.

In Brazil, the Catholic Church has evolved differently than in most of its Spanish-speaking neighbours, where a majority of the clergy are still quite conservative, said Teixeira.

One of the countries in the region providing cause for concern is Argentina, he added, not only due to the “less tolerant” attitude of the Catholic Church there, but also because of the fast pace at which the scourge is spreading, similar to the rate registered in Brazil six years ago.

Half of the people infected in Argentina are intravenous drug users, a fact that could trigger an explosive rise in the incidence of HIV/AIDS — which Brazil prevented with intense informational and educational campaigns.

Despite its success, the Brazilian government is boosting prevention efforts targetting drug users, and has not ruled out the possibility of handing out free syringes to help curb the spread of AIDS, said General Alberto Cardoso, the head of the Cabinet of Institutional Security charged with the question of drug prevention and treatment.

Argentina, where the government does not allow prevention campaigns to recommend the use of condoms, ranks 13th in Latin America, with 0.69 percent of the population infected with HIV.

In Latin America, the most frequent route of HIV transmission is sexual relations, reported Piot. He added, however, that AIDS prevention efforts among homosexuals had proven to be effective, as demonstrated by the case of Brazil.

But due to discrimination and prejudice, scarce resources are earmarked for campaigns targetting gays, even though in some countries, as many as 30 percent of homosexual men test positive for HIV, Piot underscored.

The exception, again, is Brazil, where homosexuals are a key focus of prevention campaigns, which are often conducted by their own associations.

Some 2.7 million dollars were assigned this year specifically to campaigns by non-governmental organisations working with homosexuals, said Teixeira, who added that Brazil would channel around 550 million dollars towards AIDS prevention and treatment this year.

Health Minister José Serra said that given the enormous expense involved, largely the result of the high cost of anti-retroviral medicines, his ministry was studying the possibility of applying a Brazilian law on patent licensing which would allow some of the anti-retroviral drugs to be produced and sold at a lower cost.

That would bring down prices, and thus government expenditure on anti-HIV drugs, which currently cost the state around 350 million dollars a year, “a higher amount than that paid by any other country,” according to Serra.