Brasília, 3/25/2004 (Agência Brasil) - As of now the 92,000 recruits who report for military service annually in Brazil will participate in a sexually transmitted disease and AIDS prevention and control program, along with the 300,000 permanent members of the Brazilian Armed Forces. The program will be run by the Ministry of Health as part of a UN project.

The program will be directed especially at the approximately 200,000 members of the army, air force and navy between the ages of 18 and 28.

Between 1983 and 2003, the army reported 761 cases of HIV/AIDS, the overwhelming majority of the cases among recruits. (translator: Allen Bennett)