Brasília, January 9, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Aids is beginning to worry Brazilian sanitary officials who take care of Indian health. In a population estimated at 400 thousand Indians, 101 cases of Aids have been detected since 1986, according to information from the Minister of Health's National DST/Aids Program. The disease mainly affects the 50 thousand Indians who live outside Indian villages, in urban and frontier areas.

The government is most concerned about the Center-West region, where 45% of the Aids cases among Indians in Brazil have occurred.

The director of the National Health Foundation's Department of Indian Health, Ricardo Chagas, said that there are currently 6,400 technical personnel who work directly with Indian health in the 34 Special Indian Health Sanitary Districts (DSEI), scattered around the country. One of the projects that has been developed is to orient Indians to use condoms, especially in their contacts with non-Indians. (DAS)