Brazil students to be issued condoms in AIDS battle

Besides books, pens and pencils, Brazilian students soon will have a new mandatory item in their schoolbags: condoms.

Besides books, pens and pencils, Brazilian students soon will have a new mandatory item in their schoolbags: condoms.The country has adopted a bold strategy to fight the spread of AIDS among teenagers. It will distribute condoms among sexually active students aged 14 and above.The Health Ministry has selected this age because studies have shown Brazilian boys become sexually active at 15 and girls start at 14 and a half.The Education Ministry has selected five public schools to launch the program, which will later cover all public high school students in the nation.The schools have a tradition of developing sex education programs that have been used to identify sexually active students who are at least 14.”We have carried out opinion polls in these schools and have concluded that parents and teachers support the program,” the Health Ministry’s press department said.Psychologists will instruct male and female students on the proper use of condoms.The plan was inspired by a public health program developed in Cuba, the only other country in the Americas to develop such an initiative. Sexually active Brazilians have sex an average of 12 times a month, and authorities estimate each student will receive eight condoms monthly.Each school will decide how to distribute the condoms. They may be available at stands monitored by psychologists or from sex-ed teachers.The Health Ministry will spend $32,000 distributing 256,000 prophylactics to 105,800 teens in the five schools and at public hospitals in 2003.”Youths remain one of the most vulnerable groups for the AIDS epidemic,” Health Minister Humberto Costa said recently.Authorities have decided to distribute only male condoms because of the cost. They cost the equivalent of about 40 cents at local drugstores, much less than the $2.50 price of female condoms.Meanwhile, the Federal Government is planning to build a factory in the Amazon region to make male condoms and bring the price down to nine cents.Free distribution of condoms has been a tradition in Brazil. Public health authorities distributed 510 million units between 1985 and 2002 and the volume will skyrocket to 300 million in 2003, according to the health ministry.The Brazilian program to combat AIDS is a model among developing countries and combines free access to anti-retroviral treatment and aggressive awareness campaigns.The program received the 2003 Gates Award for Global Health issued by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. ”Brazil is saving lives and saving resources at the same time, and that should be an inspiration to countries around the world,” said William Foege of the US foundation’s board of directors.The country received international attention in 1996 when it guaranteed free access to drugs for HIV patients and currently provides free treatment to some 115,000 people.The set of anti-HIV initiatives has shown positive results. The Government estimates it has reduced the AIDS mortality rate by nearly 50 per cent since 1996 and prevented nearly 360,000 hospitalisations in 1997-2001, resulting in savings of over $1 billion.(Source: ABC, Sunday, August 10, 2003. 12:32pm (AEST))