Brazil expands its anti-AIDS program

AP/Bloomberg Businessweek, 08/30/2012

Brazil’s anti-AIDS program will be expanded to include at least 35,000 more people, a Health Ministry official said Wednesday.

Ronaldo Hallal of the ministry’s Sexually Transmitted Disease Department said people with 500 or fewer CD4 cells per cubic millimeter will receive anti-retroviral HIV treatment. Before the program’s expansion, people with 350 or less CD4 cells per cubic millimeter received treatment.

CD4 cell levels measure the strength of the immune system.

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Obesity rates soaring in Brazil as prosperity flourishes

Palash R. Ghosh – IBTimes,  04/12/2012

An overweight Brazilian woman walks on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro. (Photo: Reuters)

Brazil, the land of suntanned, slender, bikini-wearing beauties and lean muscular macho men, is now facing a health problem more associated with the advanced economies of western Europe and North America – rising rates of obesity.

According to a survey by the nation’s Ministry of Health, nearly half (48.5 percent) of the Brazilian population was overweight as of 2011, up from 42.7 percent just five years before.

Moreover, the proportion of Brazilians who are obese leaped from 11.4 percent to 15.8 percent over that period.

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Once slim, more Brazilians tipping the scales

Kenneth Rapoza – Forbes, 04/10/2012

30% or more body fat is considered obese. In Brazil, still less than 15% are in that category compared to nearly 30% in the U.S. But a new report by the Brazilian Health Ministry suggests Brazilians are now tipping the scales more than ever. (Credit source: Forbes)

Eating on the run and sugary drinks has nearly half the Brazilian population now classified as overweight or worse — obese. Investors, look for Brazilian health care and medical device names trading on the BM&F Bovespa, because fat is trending.

The thought of overweight Brazilians flies in the face of the stereotype that the country is teeming with tall, tan and trim bodies. But as Brazilians go from drinking milk from a plastic bag for breakfast with maybe a cookie, to maybe popping down a Red Bull instead, more and more Brazilians are eating like a middle class society: on the run, loaded with sugar, or just overdoing it at the buffet restaurants that dominate the São Paulo lunch hour scene.

According to the country’s Health Ministry, 43% of adults were overweight in 2006. The government considers people overweight if their fat content is more than 25% of their body weight. In 2011, the number rose to 48.5%.  Those who have more than 30% body fat are considered obese, and their numbers have grown from just 11% in 2006 to 15.8% today.

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Brazil to distribute 20 million female condoms free

EFE/LAHT, 03/21/2012

The Brazilian Health Ministry announced Tuesday that it acquired 20 million female condoms that will be distributed free to the public, mainly among women considered to be most vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases.

The “third generation” condoms cost 27.3 million reais ($15.2 million) and are made of nitrile latex, according to a Health Ministry communique.

Brazil began distributing female condoms free in 1997 and through 2011 it had acquired 16 million of them, some 25 percent fewer than the number that will be distributed this year alone.

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Brazil’s government handed out nearly half a billion free condoms in 2011

AP/Washington Post, 03/12/2012

Brazil’s government says it handed out nearly a half-billion free condoms last year — a record for the nation’s campaign to reduce AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Brazil’s Health Ministry says it distributed 493 million condoms last year. That’s 2 1/2 condoms for every person in Latin America’s largest nation. They cost the government about $19 million.

The ministry says the Brazilian government buys and distributes more condoms than any other nation. About 90 percent of all condoms used in Brazil are provided by the government.

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Brazil launches program to curb the use of crack

Boston.com, 12/08/2011

The Brazilian government says it will invest more than $2 billion to curb the spread of crack cocaine in Latin America’s biggest country.

The Health Ministry says the government will invest 4 billion reals ($2.2 billion) in the program. That includes creation of a public health network focused on treating drug users.

The ministry’s statement on Wednesday says that more than 300 medical offices will be set up to provide health care in urban areas with large numbers of drug users. Nearly 600 temporary shelters will be built to monitor the recovery of addicts.

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