HIV/AIDS in Brazil

What do you get when you compare Brazil and the United States of America? I asked myself the same question and the topic of the HIV/AIDS epidemic was one of my main concerns. It is obvious that the United States is a developed country that has a lot of advantages towards health care, education, and the standard of living. Brazil on the other hand is a developing country that is struggling to be a better country by battling a poor government and topping it off combating the HIV/ AIDS epidemic. After reading the latest articles on how Brazil deals with a mass of diseases, I would want to share their strategies on how this country sees progress. Battling an epidemic can be difficult for Brazil, but if countries come together and share ideas, battling the epidemic will then become an easier process.

As a developing country, Brazil is based on a population that consists of either rich or poor. The poverty rate is really high. What this means is that poor families that are infected with diseases can not afford to get a cure. According to, UNAIDS 2008 Report on the global AIDS epidemic article, over a period of ten years, Brazil has managed to show a great improvement in containing HIV and AIDS in a low number of cases. The thing that keeps working for Brazil is that fact that they have universal health care. They are provided with ARV’s to whomever is diagnosed with the virus will be fully covered and don not discriminate regardless of gender, where you live, social economic status.


Little by little, universal health care tends to be effective because more people become more aware of prevention of the horrible diseases. The Fighting against AIDS: the Brazilian experience stated that AIDS-related mortality cases have dramatically decreased by more than half of original estimation in ten years due to more people getting testing and being more aware. This gives hope for people who are infected because the people can not afford a cure will be given a second chance to live.

A great thing that Brazil has established has been prevention programs. As reading HIV/AIDS in Brazil, the article read that Brazil’s government encourages HIV testing worldwide that way everyone knows their status. Brazil focuses on condom distribution instead of abstinence which can be a conflict with other countries, especially the U.S... US government offered $40 million funding but Brazil refused because it did not like the idea of promoting abstinence. Instead Brazil supports sex workers and that is why they promote condom usage. This is something that the US would never permit because they believe it is unethical. When looking at the US, I see that there is no universal health care to provide the poor, and that is one of the root problem that the US has with tackling the epidemic.

I propose universal health care for the US. If a developing country can decrease the number of mortality rate by more than half in a period of ten years so can we. We need to educate ourselves on the use of condoms and other contraceptives and make them available to anyone. Attacking the problem of HIV/AIDS in the US is not a new thing but why is it still happening? It is difficult to determine what causes HIV/AIDS but if we can make similar approaches towards the epidemic then we can finally end the death rates. If we continue with my plan, by 2018 HIV/AIDS will be history.













Becerra, 3

Works Cited Page:

1. UNAIDS 2008 Report on global AIDS epidemic
2. Levi, Guido Carlos, and Victoria Marco, Marco Antonio A. (December 6th 2002), ‘Fighting against AIDS: the Brazilian experience’, AIDS 16: pp2373-2383
3. ‘Brazil Refuses $4014 in U.S. AIDS Grants to Protest Policy Requiring Groups to Condemn Commercial Sex Work’. 03 may 2005. Medical New Today. 11. < http///www/medicalnewtoday.com/articles 123-1244php
4. Bacon O., M. L. Pecoraro et al. (2004), ‘HIV/AIDS in Brazil’, AIDS Research Policy Centre, University of California