AIDS hits poorest

AIDS hits poorest

By Marina Cameron

Since HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was discovered, its biggest areas of growth have been in the Third World, particularly the poorest countries. Recent reports indicate that within the Third World it is also the poorest who are hit hardest.

Mario Osava reports through the Inter Press Service, that in Brazil, for example, AIDS is increasingly an illness of the poor. Data from the Ministry of Health indicate that up to 1984, 83% of sufferers were university graduates. By 1994, 69% had only finished primary school or were illiterate.

A document prepared for the National Congress for the Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS in December noted that the poorest of the poor, who suffer "illnesses resulting from hunger and a lack of public hygiene", are those worst hit by AIDS.

The poorest sections of the population are also the most dependent on an ailing public health system. New treatment techniques entailing a large daily dose of a drug "cocktail" are extremely expensive.

Advances in the treatment of AIDS, where early diagnosis and radical drug treatment have led to undetectable levels of the virus in the bloodstream (although small amounts have still been found in the gastro-intestinal tract), cost up to US$20,000 per patient per year.

The government is obliged by law to provide this treatment to Brazilian citizens, but has also embarked on an information and prevention campaign. Osava reports that more than 250 million condoms are being distributed amongst the poorest sectors of the population.

The distortions of a system which forces Third World countries to produce for profit and serve the needs of international capitalist monetary institutions before their own population leads to some striking ironies. The current national production capacity for condoms in Brazil is only 120 million.

The majority of condoms needed have to be imported, leading to problems of quality control and transport. Meanwhile, products from the First World like cigarettes easily and abundantly reach even the most remote corners of the country.

From GLW issue 261