Brasília, 5/4/2004 (Agência Brasil) - The National Program for Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS (Programa Nacional de Doenças Sexualmente Transmissíveis e Aids) (DST/Aids), which is run by the Ministry of Health, and the National Catholic Bishop's AIDS program (Pastoral da Aids), have decided to work together in providing assistance to East Timor in its fight against HIV.

In East Timor, 93% of the population is Catholic, around 744,000 people, and the official language is Portuguese. The country is the newest member of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP). It has been independent since 2002, when it ended 23 years of domination by Indonesia.

Because of the precarious situation of the country's health system, it is difficult to measure the exact extent of the AIDS problem there. The new Brazilian assistance partnership program will send a team to East Timor to evaluate the situation in August and make recommendations on the funding and material needed for assistance.

According to Alexandre Grangeiro, the coordinator of the DST/Aids program, medicine, technical assistance and prevention techniques will be provided to East Timor. "They do not have an epidemic there yet, so this is the appropriate moment to begin taking action in setting up a prevention and treatment program," he declared. (Translator: Allen Bennett)