Juliana Cézar Nunes
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) - The Kenyan government requested the renewal of a project in partnership with Brazil to combat and treat Aids. 6% of the Kenyan population is infected by the HIV virus, and 300 people die each day as a result of the disease. During the course of 2000, Brazil sent anti-retroviral medications to a Kenyan shelter for HIV-positive children. The annual mortality rate dropped from 20 to 0.

When the project terminated, the Brazilian Ministry of Health proposed measures to combat vertical transmission of the HIV virus, which occurs between mother and child during pregnancy or at the moment of birth. The proposal, however, received no response from the Kenyan government. The visit to Kenya this week by Brazilian Chancellor, Celso Amorim, prompted the resumption of negotiations.

The conditions and the date for cooperation to get underway remain undetermined. Amorim plans to mobilize both the government and the private sector for this project. "It is an area in which we can cooperate not only with resources, which are indeed limited, but with technical cooperation," the Chancellor suggests.

A group of entrepreneurs is accompanying Amorim on his 10-day trip to Africa. In Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, representatives of the Afro-cosmetics and pharmaceuticalo sectors had contacts with companies interested in importing products from Brazil .

Translation: David Silberstein