| We examined the characteristics of the AIDS epidemic in the northeastern region of Brazil, comparing it to the epidemic in Brazil as a whole, and to the state of São Paulo, with respect to the temporal evolution of morbidity and mortality during the period 1990 to 1999, using information from communicable disease reports and mortality records. Since 1996, the incidence rate of AIDS in adults in Brazil as a whole and in São Paulo has been showing a trend towards stability, whereas in the Brazilian northeast the incidence rates of the disease continue to grow. In the northeast, sexual transmission is responsible for more than 80% of cases, injectable drug users (IDU) comprising only a small percentage of cases. There is a greater incidence of AIDS among... |
