The Brazilian government started yesterday, World AIDS Day, an awareness campaign among Brazilians that has "racism" as its main theme.
The increase contamination among women and blacks has become a concern to the government, according to the Minister of Health, Saraiva Felipe, who participated on the presentation of the Ministry’s report "AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases", this Wednesday (30), in Brasilia.
Even though children, youth (ages 13-19), and drug users are winning the fight against AIDS, occurrences of the disease among women and blacks are up, in Brazil.
To combat this situation and focus on the relationship between racism, poverty and AIDS, Felipe said that his Ministry is working together with other government institutions, non-governmental organizations, and celebrities.
The number of cases has increased in all of the country’s regions except for the Southeast, which has had a 15,6% reduction between 1998 and 2004. On the other extreme, during the same period, in the North of the country, the number of cases has increased 94,7%.
The Minister said that the northern region has become a priority for AIDS fighting programs.
Data presented by the Ministry of Health were collected by state secretariats of health, from 2004 to June of this year.
Agência Brasil
