Cecília Jorge and Juliana Andrade
Reporters - Agência Brasil

Brasília - The estimate presented in the global report on AIDS drafted by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) is that as many as 350 thousand deaths have been averted by the expanded healthcare coverage of disease victims.

The director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Latin America and the Caribbean, Nils Kastberg, said that the document, which was released today (21), points to some advances in the campaign against the disease.

The number of cases in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and some Caribbean countries has declined in recent years. In the Caribbean, for example, the number of HIV carriers has remained stable at 300 thousand cases in relation to 2003. "In Haiti there was a decline, which shows clearly that, through a multisectorial effort, the number of people with HIV can be reduced," Kastberg observed.

The study also acknowledges that access to AIDS treatment has improved significantly in the last two years. "Over a million people in low and medium income countries now enjoy longer and better lives, because they are receiving anti-retroviral treatment," the document notes.

Translation: David Silberstein