THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF AIDS IN LATIN AMERICA

AIDS is believed to have been introduced to the western hemisphere through Haiti, where it affects a large percentage of the population. As it spread into Latin America, it was at first limited to homosexuals, bisexuals, and intravenous (IV) drug users, in a transmission pattern similar to that still found in North America (see card 81). At this point the Latin American rate of infection per capita is only 2/3 that of the U.S.-but it is more than double that of Europe and the continent has recently experienced a sharp rise in heterosexual AIDS cases, although this has not yet approached the African pattern of mostly-heterosexual transmission.

Various causes are cited for the change in transmission pattern. Catholicism, the region's dominant religion, forbids the use of condoms (because they may prevent pregnancy) and traditions similar to those in Africa (see card 78) keep Latin American women so subservient that it is considered the right of husbands to force sexual activity upon their wives with or without a condom. In Brazil, where a husband can murder his wife if he can prove to the court she caused an affront to his honor, there are 700,000 HIV-infected people and the number is expected to quadruple in the next three years. Furthermore, the presence of the Colombian cocaine cartels has led to a rise in IV drug use and hence more AIDS cases.

The only medically successful campaign to limit AIDS in Latin. America has been carried out in Cuba, where the disease was introduced by military troops who brought it from Angola. In "sanitaria" run along the lines of leper colonies, the Cubans keep about 700 people with HIV isolated from the rest of the population. Next Card 84: WOMEN and AIDS

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AIDS IN LATIN AMERICA