Report of the First Brazilian Symposium on Basic Research in HIV/AIDS.

Abstract

HIV-1 from a seropositive Brazilian individual wasachieved in May 1987. During this time, a lot ofeffort was oriented towards solving emergent pub-lic health needs such as the development of easy,quick and cheap screening and confirmatory as-says for the serological diagnosis. The importanceof several institutions in financing reasearchprojects, e.g. Fundacao Banco do Brasil, NationalResearch Council (CNPq) and Petrobras waspointed out.Representing the Ministry of Health, DrEuclides A Castilho highlighted the trends of theHIV/AIDS epidemic in Brazil. He stated that inthe beginning of the epidemic, the epidemiologicprofile was similar to that observed in the USAand Western Europe. The homosexual/bisexualmode of transmission was the most important routein the propagation of infection in Brazil. Later, theepidemic profile began to change and currently theintravenous drug use and the heterosexual modeof transmission have assumed greater significance.He also summarized the present prevalence ofHIV/AIDS in Brazil: as of February of 1995, a to-tal of 71,111 AIDS cases were officially reportedto the Ministry of Health. The infection is dissemi-nated all over the country and the estimated preva-lence of infection in terms of incidence per 100,000inhabitants is 11.2 in the Northern, 13.0 in theNortheastern, 32.3 in the Middle-Western, 91.0 inthe Southeastern and 26.5 in the Southern regionsof Brazil. With respect to sexual preferences, since1980 a total of 45% of the cases of HIV/AIDSoccurred in homosexual/bisexual men and 17.7%in heterosexuals. The parenteral mode of transmis-sion accounts for 25.2% of cases due to blood orblood factors and 21% due to intravenous drug use.Dr Eduardo Martins, Vice-President of theFIOCRUZ, drew attention to the fact that theOswaldo Cruz Foundation, as the main research in-stitution of the Ministry of Health, recognizes theurgent need to establish ways to face the HIV-1 epi-demic in Brazil as well as other emergent or re-emergent infections. Therefore, the InstitutionalDuring the first decade of AIDS epidemic inBrazil very little basic research on HIV-1 was per-formed in this country. In fact, the efforts of Bra-zilian scientists and the government policy wereaimed to solve the immediate health problems cre-ated by the emergent HIV-1/AIDS epidemic. TheFirst Brazilian Symposium on Basic Research inHIV/AIDS was held in Angra dos Reis, Rio deJaneiro, from 13 to 16 of September 1995, in or-der to disseminate scientific information and en-hance national and international collaboration witha view of strengthening national research capabili-ties.Opportunity was taken to posthumously honorDr Marguerite (Peggy) Pereira and Dr Helio GelliPereira, two of the world’s most distinguished vi-rologists, whose life-work was presented by DrHerman Schatzmayr (FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro).These scientists contributed a great deal to solvesome severe and important public health problemsin Brazil. Thanks to their contributions it has beenpossible to achieve significant success in control-ling the HIV/AIDS epidemic spread in blood do-nation centers in Brazil.Dr Bernardo Galvao-Castro (FIOCRUZ, Sal-vador) summarized the main historical aspects ofthe AIDS epidemic in Brazil. He recalled that thefirst AIDS cases reported in Brazil date back from1982, when six cases were reported in Sao Pauloand Rio de Janeiro. At that time, there was no offi-cial program to face this emergent epidemic. Infact, this program was established in 1985. Recog-nizing the severity of this new public health prob-lem, some groups of Brazilian researchers, mainlyin Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, iniciated someactivities in clinic, immunology and epidemiol-ogy of HIV/AIDS.In July 1985 Drs Peggy and Helio Pereirakindly donated H9/HIV-1 infected cells to theOswaldo Cruz Foundation. This enabled FIOCRUZto promptly set up the HIV-1 screening routine inthe public Brazilian blood bank network, using theimmunofluorescence assay. The first isolation of