In response to an increase in incidences of AIDS among Brazilian heterosexual men above the age of 50 over the last ten years, on 25 November the health ministry launched an AIDS-prevention campaign focused specifically on this section of the population.

Safe-sex campaigns targeted at specific groups have been an annual feature of Brazil's National STD & AIDS Programme in the run-up to World AIDS Day on 1 December – in 2007, for example, the focus was on young people aged 13-24, particularly women and gay men.

Brazil’s forthright promotion of the safe-sex message has contributed to the AIDS infection rate being much lower than in many other developing countries and similar to that in the US – an achievement described as 'remarkable' by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health.

In 1996 Brazil also became the first developing country to commit to providing free anti-retroviral medicines to those with HIV. The government has actively negotiated prices with pharmaceutical companies in order to help guarantee the sustainability of the policy, and has occasionally adopted more radical measures such as bypassing the patent for Efavirenz in 2007.

Earlier this year a report* by the World Health Organization, UNAIDS and UNICEF found that 80% of Brazilians with HIV receive antiretroviral therapy, compared with an average for low and middle-income countries of 31%.

*Towards Universal Access – Scaling Up Priority HIV/AIDS Interventions in the Health Sector – 2008 Progress Report

Source: Embassy of Brazil in London