ON THE BRINK OF AN AIDS CRISIS
Asis, Enrique & Green, James
When Juan Ortega (a pseudonym) went to his doctor three years ago for an HIV test, he was sure that he would not have the virus. He had been in a threeyear relationship. He and his boyfriend had...
...Virgin Islands, is 167.5 per million inhab- itants...
...The percapita AIDS rate in the United States, including Puerto Rico and the U.S...
...The Pan American Health Organization's December report, "AIDS Surveillance in the Americas," says a cumulative total of 59,723 AIDS cases have been reported in Latin America, and 24,500 people have died of the illness...
...He and his boyfriend had just finished paying off the furniture for their small one-bedroom apart- ment near Avenida Santa Fe, a gay cruising areain Buenos Aires...
...The per capita rate in a number of Latin America countries is higher than or comparable to the U.S...
...While it is impossible to make accurate estimates about the incidence of HIV in the population, in Brazil, Nelson Solano Vianna, a long-time activist with the Sdo Paulo organization Group to Support the Prevention of AIDS (GAPA), estimates that three million people are HIV-positive...
...In countries such as Argentina which traditionally have had a good public health-care system, the severe debt crisis of the 1980s resulted in dramatic cuts in social services and a move toward the privatization of health care...
...In Argentina, for example, the Church has pressured the government to eliminate any reference to homosexuality, condoms or sexuality from the official AIDS-prevention campaign, essentially eviscerating it...
...The homophobic attitudes of government officials and the Catholic Church are a barrier to adequate AIDS education...
...Although he did not practice safe sex, he thought AIDS was only a danger for those who went to Brazil for Carnival or who had slept with a visiting tourist...
...rate: the Bahamas (903.8 AIDS cases per million inhabitants), Bermuda (396.6), Honduras (91.5), Belize (60.4), and Brazil (53.3...
...The doctor told him he was HIV-positive...
...While AIDS is not as common in Latin America as in Africa or the United States, activists are concerned that grossly inadequate government funding for AIDS education, research and health care is creating a near-crisis in many countries in the region...
...While figures on the distribution of AIDS cases by category are somewhat questionable due to the fact that many men decline to admit homosexual con- tacts, the Pan-American Health Organi- zation calculates that in 1991 homo- sexuals and bisexuals comprised 67% of the AIDS cases in the Andean region, 56% in the Southern Cone, 25% in Central America, and 13% in the Caribbean...
...When the American AIDS Foundation announced in Amsterdam last yearthat it was giving six Argentine AIDS groups a total grant of $300,000 for AIDS prevention and care, the Minister of Health refuted the claim that Argentina was on the brink of a severe crisis," he said...
...the projects director of CONSIDA, one of Argentina's most effective AIDS organizations, says that the Argentine government refuses to take the issue seriously...
...Javier L. Hourcade Belloco...
...This means that people with HIV/AIDS cannot rely on the government for much assistance...
...This compares to 249,234 AIDS cases and 164,884 deaths in the United States...
...The countries in Latin America with the greatest number of reported AIDS cases are: Brazil (31,364), Mexico (11,034), Haiti (3,086), Argentina (2,745), Venezuela (2,173), Honduras (1,976), and the Dominican Republic (1,809...
...In Nicaragua, the new sodomy law signedby President Chamorro will likely inhibit any reference to homosexuality in that country's AIDS education...
...There are only two health centers for AIDS treatment in the entire country and the conditions there are precarious to say the least...
Vol. 26 • February 1993 • No. 4
