Brazil's HIV/AIDS Treatment, Prevention Program May Be in Jeopardy, Some Experts Say

The Miami Herald reports on Brazil's national HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention program, writing, "By the mid-1990s, more effective and powerful antiretroviral therapies replaced the older treatments, and in 1996 Brazil declared that it would offer free antiretroviral treatment to all citizens with AIDS." However, "the controversial program -- the government broke international patent laws to mass-produce the drugs at a lower cost and recruited sex workers to help distribute condoms -- may not survive for long, experts say," the newspaper continues.

"AIDS activists fear that costs will rise for the Brazilian government as patients on the life-saving treatment live longer than they did in the past, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS," the