HIV/AIDS in Brazil

HIV/AIDS in Brazil is the national course of the HIV and AIDS epidemic and of the public response to it. The first AIDS case identified in the country dates to 1982, and infection rates climbed steeply through the 1980s. In 1990 the World Bank predicted 1,200,000 cases by the year 2000, roughly double the number the Brazilian Ministry of Health and most international organizations later reported. The South and Southeast regions, led by Rio Grande do Sul, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, account for about three quarters or more of infections, while the Northeast holds a third of the population but only about a tenth of cases. The Brazilian AIDS program is widely cited as a model for developing countries, notably for its universal provision of antiretroviral drugs, progressive social policies toward risk groups and collaboration with non-governmental organizations, some of which were internationally controversial.