AIDS:TheDiseaseandtheStigma

"Aids" - Performer: Léo Jaime Composer: Léo Jaime and Leandro - 1988

On September 3, 1981, the Jornal do Brasil published a note entitled “Cancer in homosexuals is investigated in the USA,” echoing the initiative of the United States “National Centers for Disease Control” to form “a special team of 20 doctors to investigate the emergence of rare, yet deadly, types of pneumonia and cancer mainly among homosexuals.” Years later, the Brazilian scientific community would say this was one of the country's first public disclosures of what was then the still-unknown Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), a disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Of uncertain origin, AIDS became a global epidemic in the early 1980s. The first cases diagnosed in Brazil date back to 1982 and 1983. The profile of the first HIV-positive patients – middle- and upper-class male homosexuals – was enough for public opinion to jump to hasty conclusions about who was responsible for the contamination. In July 1985, for example, the Archbishop of Rio, Dom Eugênio Salles, told the Jornal do Brasil that AIDS was divine punishment for homosexuality, and, not infrequently, HIV and its disease were called, respectively, the “gay virus and gay cancer.”

Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of two people. At the top, a man in a suit is clearly visible. He is raising his fists in a gesture of power or protest. Below him, another person is seated, wearing a headscarf with geometric patterns. This second figure also has their arms raised, although less sharply in focus.

The spread of HIV around the world occurred after the movement toward liberalization of social customs experienced in the 1960s and 1970s. However, it did not take long for AIDS to prove itself an indiscriminate disease, transmitted through unprotected sex, contact with contaminated blood, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. Even so, prejudice against HIV-positive people remained intense in the country over the following years, prompting a series of civil society mobilizations.

Lorna Washington at an event organized by the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA) held at the Cristo Redentor on December 1, 1988. Collection: ABIA.

Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of a demonstration against AIDS. In the center, a woman holds a sign reading "SOLIDARITY: EMBRACE THIS FEELING" along with other details about the campaign. She is wearing glasses and a white blouse. To her left, other people raise their arms holding similar signs. In the background, there is a metal structure and a large curtain. The image was captured on December 1, 1988, during an event promoted by ABIA at Cristo Redentor.

Sociologist and human rights activist Herbert de Souza, known as Betinho, became the first HIV-positive person to preside over a non-governmental organization dedicated to fighting HIV and AIDS in Brazil, the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA), founded in 1987 in Rio de Janeiro. Following in ABIA's footsteps, Rio would also see the birth, in 1989, of the Group for the Valorization, Integration, and Dignity of the AIDS Patient (VIDDA), a non-governmental organization created by Herbert Daniel — a homosexual, sociologist, and member of the armed resistance during the military dictatorship in Brazil — who was responsible for organizing the first National Meeting of People Living with HIV/AIDS, also held in the Rio de Janeiro capital, in August 1991. In culture, the song "Black and White – americanos" by Caetano Veloso denounced the discourses of religious leaders, politicians, and doctors against homosexuals.

At the same time, since the late 1980s, governments and research institutions, such as the Instituto de Medicina Social of the Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro and the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), embarked on a crusade to combat the virus. In 1988, the Programa Nacional de Aids was created, and the Ministério da Saúde launched, on the occasion of carnival, the first national HIV prevention campaign, titled “Quem vê cara, não vê Aids” (“You can't tell by looking”). One of the campaign's main themes was the promotion of the male condom, popularly known as the “camisinha.”

Article from the O Globo newspaper on December 21, 1986 - O Globo

Image description: The image is a black-and-white newspaper page, dated December 21, 1986, published by the newspaper "O Globo." The page features several articles and columns about AIDS, with a main story highlighting the risk of one million people being infected in Brazil. The columns are organized into several sections, with headlines and subheadings set in bold. The main headline, "Sem prioridade, mal do século pode contaminar um milhão no Brasil" ("Without priority, disease of the century could infect one million in Brazil"), is prominently featured at the top of the page.

In 1996, the federal government took an important step in controlling the disease by distributing, through the Sistema Único de Saúde (Unified Health System), the first antiretroviral drug “cocktails.” As a result, in just over five years, mortality caused by so-called Aids “opportunistic diseases” fell by about 70% in Rio de Janeiro. Unfortunately, recent data show that cases of HIV infection have risen again due to the “de-dramatization” of the disease, which came to be seen as a chronic condition rather than a fatal one.

"Hanoi Hanoi" - Composer: Arnaldo Brandão; Tavinho Paes Date: 1990