AIDS in Brazil Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

AIDS in Brazil - Essay Example At this time, a group of health professionals emerged that was determined to re-model the public health system. Thus they started what it is known as the "health reform movement" in Brazil (Camargo, 2005). In 1982, there were held democratic elections for state governor after many years of military regimes. The opposition triumphed in some key states and members of the "health reform movement" were employed in the State Health Secretariats. Camargo states that through this new order "the movement towards integrated health policies thus began to gain ground, eventually resulting in the formation of the Unified Health Service - the SUS" (2005). In 1983, the first diagnoses of AIDS were made in Brazil. By that time the first official program against this disease was established in So Paulo. Eventually this initiative led to the creation of the National STD and AIDS Department (Sexually-Transmitted Disease -STD-) in 1985 when democracy was restored (Camargo, 2005; Avert.Org, 2008). In this year the first NGOs against AIDS began to be founded, such as the GAPA (Support Group for AIDS Prevention), the ABIA (the Brazilian Interdisciplinary Association for AIDS), Grupo Pela Vidda ("Group for Life") (founded in 1989), among many others (Avert.Org, 2008). According to Avert.Org (2008) "by this time, the rate of new HIV infections was rapidly increasing." Camargo states the following: "The number of AIDS-related deaths began to inc... Also in 1986 the VIII National Health Conference accepted the ideas of the health reform movement, which eventually influenced the health-relevant sections of the new Federal Constitution promulgated in 1988 (a watershed in Brazil's re-democratization). The Unified Health System (SUS) was thus born." (Camargo, 2005). The new Constitution had a heavy focus on human rights so this fact helped a lot in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Brazil (Avert.Org, 2008). Official prevention campaigns started in 1987. Camargo asserts the following about this period: "the idea began to be accepted that prevention involved battling prejudice and discrimination and promoting solidarity and the rights of people living with HIV and AIDS" (2005). According to Avert.Org the situation was not improving at the beginning of the 1990s. Avert.Org (2008) remarks that "not everyone was happy with the way that the government was handling the epidemic." Herbert Daniel, an HIV positive activist, published a book denouncing the failure of Brazil's government to handle successfully the negative effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic (Avert.Org, 2008). At the beginning of that decade, the World Bank predicted that by the year of 2000 there would be 1.2 million people infected with HIV in Brazil (IAS, 2005; Okie, 2006; Avert.Org, 2008). Thanks to the agressive prevention and treatment programs implemented in this country, the actual figure was around 600,000 people living with HIV in Brazil (Avert.Org, 2008). The turning point can be found in the second half of the 1990s. Camargo states it as follows: "World Bank financing for projects in the health area completely changed the