ABSTRACT

The acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic did not take Brazil by surprise. In Brazil, where homosexual society is less organized than in the United States and Western Europe, the fact that AIDS in these regions affected mostly gay men aroused ambiguous emotions that did little to attract either serious or responsible journalism. The first impact of AIDS in Brazil was surely on the public imagination. In societies in which modern means of communication predominate, rumor always moves faster than fact. In a perversion of policy, the false model ensured that AIDS would be downgraded to a second-class epidemic, lacking the significance of the great epidemics of history that have never been eliminated. In reality, the AIDS epidemic is provoking a major economic breakdown, especially in third world countries. From a cold analytical standpoint it might appear that ideas of solidarity are effective merely in a humanitarian sense, an attitude that is more poetic than practical.