Sex, Drugs, and HIV/AIDS in Brazil Book

Brazil has the third largest number of known AIDS cases in the world, surpassed only by the United States and Tanzania. By the 1990s, the annual incidence rates per hundred thousand people had increase significantly, and the highest concentrations of AIDS cases were occurring in the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Sexual transmission accounts for the majority of cases, followed closely by injection drug abuse. And, the actual number of AIDS cases in Brazil is most likely grossly underestimated. In Sex, Drugs, and HIV/AIDS in Brazil, the authors examine the complexity of the sex/drugs/AIDS linkages, analyze how Brazil's sexual culture impacts the spread of HIV, and discuss how the problems of inequality, disease, economics, and politics impact AIDS prevention programming. The book publicizes the results of a field study (PROVIVA), which was funded by the US National Institute on Drug Abuse, that analyzes an AIDS prevention/intervention program as it is applied to people in Rio de Janeiro at high risk for AIDS: drug users, prostitutes, and street children. The research involved combines anthropological, sociological, and biological perspectives, and all data is gathered through empirical and ethnographic techniques.Read More