Brazll: the epidemic that was allowed to happen

15 de novembro de 20133min15

 Acesse: Brazil the epidemic that was allowed to happen.pdf

Brazll: the epidemic that was allowed to happen
John Dunn & Ronaldo Laranjeira

Escola Paulisca de Medicina,
Universidade Federal de São Paulo,
São Paulo SP,
Brazil, 04023-900.
Bloor, I recemly described Latin America as me forgotten continent in terms of HIV infection.After the United States, the country with the greatest number of reported cases of AlDS is :lot in Africa, Europe or Asia but is in fact B~a.zil.From when records began in 1980 until August 1995,62314 cases Qf AlDS had been repor.:ed in Brazi1j this with an estimated 50% of cases going unnotified in some states. Transmission by intravenous drug use (IVDU) accounted for
22% of cumulative cases and 19.3% of those reported in 1994/95. Until August 1995, the cumulative number of AlDS cases in which IVDU was the main risk factor was 13752 (22 times the UK figure, for a country with a population only three times as large).The WHO co-ordinated multicentre srudy showed that the prevalence of HIV among intravenous cocaine users from in and out of treatmem samples in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Santos was 40% and 60%, respectively.2 An opportUnistic, community-based study of a network of 119 cocaine injectors (21 of whom had become infected with malaria) from the city of
Bauru in the state of São Paulo showed an HIV prevalence of 58%.3,4 Apan from the high prevalence of HIV a.:nong IVDUs, the other aspect of the Brazilian HIV epidemic that most distinguishes it from that of the United Kingdom’s is that a heterosexual epidemic has occurred. For the period 1980/87, when figures staned to be colJected; the male to female ratio of reponed AlDS cases was 12: 1, by 1990 it had falJen to 7: 1 and in 1994/95 to 3.6: 1.Spread to the general population occurred via three main rolites: from IVDUs to their no”ndrug-using sexual parmers, from infected female drug users (or the parmers of users) to their
newborn children and from bisexual men to their female sexual parmers. Heterosexual transmission is now the most common risk. faetor among patients with AlDS, accounting for 27.8% of cases in 1994/95.


Sobre a UNIAD

A Unidade de Pesquisa em álcool e Drogas (UNIAD) foi fundada em 1994 pelo Prof. Dr. Ronaldo Laranjeira e John Dunn, recém-chegados da Inglaterra. A criação contou, na época, com o apoio do Departamento de Psiquiatria da UNIFESP. Inicialmente (1994-1996) funcionou dentro do Complexo Hospital São Paulo, com o objetivo de atender funcionários dependentes.



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