Brazil

Abstract

This chapter reviews Brazil's response to its HIV epidemic. Brazil's reforms in the 1980s produced a healthcare system based on the principle that care should be delivered according to need rather than ability to pay. This commitment to equity played a major role in shaping the nation's response to the HIV epidemic, as is particularly evident in Brazil's provision of free antiretroviral therapy (ART) at the point of delivery. However, dramatic disparities between socio-economic groups and geographical regions in Brazil remain a challenge to the realization of this ideal, both within the HIV programme and across the Brazilian health system more generally.

The first ten years: achievements and challenges of the Brazilian program of universal access to HIV/AIDS comprehensive management and care, 1996-2006

“…Another aspect of the same problem refers to the progressive spread of the epidemic to smaller municipalities and faraway localities 85 . In this sense, despite the growing number of HIV/AIDS publications in Brazil in recent years, the gap between the available literature, vis-à-vis the actual characteristics of the epidemic, may be widening, instead of being properly addressed.…”