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 News from Around the Americas | November 2005 
Unsafe Sex, Drug Use Leads to Spike in HIV/AIDS in Latin America: UN
 AFP
| | A giant AIDS Awareness ribbon on display in Sao Paulo city hall. A UN report said unsafe sex and intravenous drug use led to a spike in HIV/AIDS cases this year in Latin America with Brazil, Argentina and Colombia among the worst offenders. (AFP/Mauricio Lima) |
Unsafe sex and intravenous drug use led to a spike in HIV/AIDS cases this year in Latin America with Brazil, Argentina and Colombia among the worst offenders, a UN report said.
The 200,000 new infections was a 12.5 percent jump from the year before and brought to 1.8 million people the number of people infected throughout South America, the report said.
"Primarily due to their large populations, the South American countries of Argentina, Brazil and Colombia are home to the biggest epidemics in this region," said the AIDS Epidemic Update for 2005.
Around 60,000 people had died from the virus in the year, said the UN report which was released in New Delhi ahead of World AIDS day on December 1.
The report said that women in Latin America, which stretches from Mexico to the tip of South America with about 600 million people, are increasingly infected with HIV, the virus that leads to fatal AIDS.
The highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS was found in Belize, Guatemala and Honduras with about one percent of adults infected.
Sex between men accounted for 25 to 35 percent of reported new cases in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Peru, the report said.
"The regions epidemics are being fuelled by varying combinations of unsafe sex and injecting drug use, with the role of sex between men being a prominent factor," the report said.
It lauded Brazil for its aggressive moves to provide a cocktail of drugs that could stem the onslaught of AIDS, but said that only 62 percent of those surveyed knew how the disease was transmitted.
"The number of Brazilians on antiretroviral therapy has continued to increase and reached approximately 170,000 in September 2005," the report said.
"Treatment coverage is high also in Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela although the terms under which it is provided are not as favourable as those in Brazil."
In Argentina, the main cause of most new infections was unprotected heterosexual intercourse leading to a rise in the numbers of women infected, the report said.
In Colombia, HIV/AIDS initially affected mostly men, with 83 percent of all cases reported to the national health authorities being males, the report said.
"However, a significant proportion of men who have sex with men also maintain sexual relationships with women. As a result, increasing numbers of women are becoming infected," the report added.
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