HIV

In the 14th century, the black death was responsible for the deaths of 25 million people. Today another scourge is infecting and killing millions of people worldwide. The name of the plague is HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and type 2, which causes AIDS (the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) and death. Estimates have placed the number of people who will be infected by the turn of the century as high as 110 million. A study by Harvard's Global AIDS Policy Coalition has warned that 57 countries are at risk for major HIV outbreaks. Most of these are developing countries which can not afford the consequences of an outbreak of this disease. Even so, little can be done to stop the outbreak, and there is no cure once a person is infected. One of the countries at risk for developing a major outbreak is Brazil. Currently, Brazil has recorded enough cases of HIV and AIDS to have it classified as an epidemic. In 1989, Brazil had the third-highest number of AIDS patients worldwide, and the numbers continue to increase. Brazil faces cultural and sociological factors which will hinder its efforts to control the spread of the disease. Cultural mores and behaviors will have to change before HIV and AIDS can be contained in Brazil.

Brazil has the distinction of being host to both HIV-1 and HIV-2 epidemics. HIV-1 occurs primarily in homosexual and bi-sexual populations; HIV-2 occurs most often in the heterosexual population. The high-risk behavior practiced b

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sible for the high numbers of AIDS cases reported in Santos. A study of AIDS and HIV in the local population of Santos gives a profile of sexual practices in Brazil and how the disease is transmitted in Brazil. Eighty-one percent of the men were married, with another 11 percent having a steady female partner, for a total of 92 percent of the men having a primary relationship with one specific woman. Of these men, 20 percent had at least one secondary partner. This secondary partner was not a prostitute. Only 1 percent of men claimed to have used drugs or a prostitute within the past year. The men exhibited a high level of knowledge of how AIDS and HIV are transmitted but did not apply precautions to their own behavior. Slightly fewer than half of the men interviewed never used a condom and 18 percent used one only sometimes. Thirty-eight percent of the men reported having had at least one sexually transmitted disease. Of the sample, 1.1 percent tested positive for HIV infection. This number is considered to be conservative in that several men who suspected that they might have the disease or were at risk excluded themselves from the study. The high numbers of AIDS found in Santos can be attributed to the socioecono

Category: Medical - H