City Life - Brazil

HIV/AIDS sufferers in Brazil today get the same treatment as HIV/AIDS sufferers in the USA and Europe -- the same, free anti-retroviral drugs, clinical care, and monitoring. Since Brazil started to manufacture its own HIV/AIDS drugs in 1997, the country's patients have proved just as capable of taking their medicines on time as Americans or Europeans, and the Brazilian government's national HIV/AIDS program has halved the death rate from AIDS, prevented thousands of new patients from being hospitalized, and helped to stabilize the epidemic. Brazil's actions have effectively countered the arguments that the drug companies were using to deny AIDS treatment to developing countries' health services.

So is Brazil's program the template for AIDS treatment elsewhere? This program from the City Life series examines whether it can be replicated in other countries.