Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - Wednesday November 8, 2000
Michael Astor, Associated Press Writer
"Twenty-years of epidemic have taught us that investment in prevention campaigns is the best weapon against AIDS," Peter Piot, executive director of the U.N. AIDS program told delegates from 28 countries at the first Forum on AIDS in Latin American and the Caribbean.
That means distributing and encouraging the use of condoms, especially among gay men, Piot said.
The most Rev. Jaime Chemello, head of the Brazilian Bishops Conference, said Tuesday that advocating the use of condoms "is counter to ethical values and incites freer sex." He said a condom was no guarantee against HIV infection.
Although Chemello echoed the Vatican's official line, much of the clergy here take a softer stance. The Health Ministry distributes condoms during the annual Carnival bash, and the Catholic Church in Brazil rarely protests.
Catholicism is the predominant religion in this region, a legacy of Spanish and Portuguese colonizers; Brazil is the world's largest Roman Catholic country, with more than 70 percent of its 165 million people claiming to be Catholics.
According to U.N. figures, 600 people are infected each day by the AIDS virus in Latin America and the Caribbean - about one every two minutes, Piot said.
Worst off is Haiti, where 5.17 percent of the population is infected, or 210,000 people, he said. In the Bahamas, 4.13 percent is infected. Guyana has the highest rate in South America, with 3.01 percent.
Brazil, the host of the weeklong AIDS conference, drew praise for its handling of the disease. It supplies a free "cocktail" of anti-AIDS drugs to 90,000 victims, and AIDS deaths in Brazil were cut in half between 1996 and 1999. Some 540,000 Brazilians, or 0.57 percent of the population are registered as HIV-positive.
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