Brasília, 3/29/2004 (Agência Brasil) - The Ministry of Health reports that this year it will distribute 235,000 condoms to students between the ages of 14 and 19 in a total of 205 municipalities. The students will be enrolled in a program, "Health and Prevention in Schools," and each will receive eight condoms per month. The program is being run in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Unesco.

The program began last year in the states of Acre, Paraná and São Paulo, where 15,000 students in 471 schools participated. This year, the program will begin in May in the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Paraiba.

Studies show that the average age youths in Brazil begin sexual activity is 14.5 for boys and 15.5 for girls. And the National Sexually Transmitted Disease/AIDS program has found that youths in the target age bracket have very high rates of sexaully transmitted disease: around 49% of them. It has also been found that AIDS and adolescent pregnancies are occurring at earlier ages. The objective of the program is to deal with these problems. (translator: Allen Bennett)