ABSTRACT
Since the earliest confirmed cases began to be registered in 1982 and 1983, the rapid spread of HIV infection and AIDS in Brazil has become increasingly evident (see, for example, Folha de São Paulo, 1986; Panos Institute, 1988; Rodrigues and Chequer, 1987). By 1986 the number of reported cases of AIDS in Brazil had surpassed the numbers reported by countries such as France and Haiti, and since that time, even with increased reporting from the nations of central Africa, Brazil has consistently ranked among the leaders on the list of nations reporting cases to the World Health Organization (see, for example, Rodrigues and Chequer, 1987; see also Chapter 4 in this volume). Indeed, by mid1992, after more than a decade of unchecked expansion, for reasons that will become clearer later, the epidemic had spread to every region of the country, and as many as 28,455 cases and 12,873 confirmed deaths had been reported to the Brazilian Ministry of Health (see Table 1). Even more troubling, while reliable seroprevalence data have been extremely limited and the analysis of epidemiological tendencies has thus had to rely largely upon case reporting, the Ministry of Health estimated that as many as 700,000 to 1,000,000 Brazilians may already be infected with HIV as the AIDS epidemic enters its second decade in Brazil.
