Brazil Warns of Possible AIDS Epidemic : Gays Mobilize to Help Victims; 150 Cases Reported This Year

With new cases of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) being reported at a rate of one each day, Brazil’s public health authorities are warning that an epidemic of the fatal disease may be developing here.

The large homosexual communities of this city and Sao Paulo, where most of the cases have been detected, are alarmed by the evidence that incidence of the disease, transmitted through sexual contact and blood transfusions, is increasing quickly.

A homosexual support group has been formed in Sao Paulo, a city of 10 million people, to assist victims. Posters warning against sexual promiscuity are being distributed in sauna parlors, bars frequented by homosexuals and motels.

Paulo Cesar Bonfim, a member of the support group, is organizing a series of public discussions through which he hopes to alert the homosexual community to the dangers of the disease.

Since 1982, when the first AIDS carrier was discovered here, the number of reported cases has risen to 316. Of these, half have come to the attention of medical authorities since last Jan. 1.

Minister of Health Carlos Santana gave orders last week for a national information campaign on how the disease is transmitted, how it can be recognized and what preventive measures should be taken. The national network TV-Globo devoted part of its prime time programming Sunday to a report on the incidence of AIDS here and in the world.

Medical officials claim that Brazil, a country of 130 million people, now appears to be second only to the United States in the impact of the mysterious disease.

109 Deaths Reported

AIDS has killed 109 people here and, with the rapid growth in reported cases, health authorities expect a increasing number of patients requiring hospitalization.

The number of AIDS patients is small compared with those suffering from other contagious diseases in Brazil, a country where 40,000 new cases of malaria are reported each year. But AIDS, a killer against which there seems to be no sure protection, has increasingly alarmed the public.

In Sao Paulo, where 71% of Brazil’s cases have been reported, the state public health system has set up an emergency AIDS alert system through hospitals, neighborhood clinics and the medical profession.

Health Minister Santana has called a meeting of public health secretaries in the nine states where cases have been reported to coordinate a federal plan to combat the killer.