HIV/AIDS prevention campaign underway for Brazil’s Carnival celebrations
SALVADOR, BRAZIL – FEBRUARY 16: Brazilians march on the first day of Carnival celebrations on February 16, 2012 in Salvador, Brazil. Carnival is the grandest holiday in Brazil, annually drawing millions in raucous celebrations culminating on Fat Tuesday before the start of the Catholic season of Lent which begins on Ash Wednesday. Salvador is the capital of the Northeastern state of Bahia and was the first colonial capital of Brazil. Police strikes in Salvador and Rio de Janeiro in recent weeks threatened Carnival and raised questions about the country’s preparedness to host the upcoming 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival begins tomorrow. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — With Carnival celebrations officially underway across Brazil, the country is ready to help its citizens and themore than one million tourists visiting the country prevent the contraction of HIV/AIDS.
According to RankBrasil, health ministries will distribute over 70 million free condoms across the country in order to promote safe sex during the famously lustful celebrations.
There will also be free HIV tests available on-site at Carnival, particularly in Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, São Paulo, Recife, Olinda and Ouro Preto, where the most tourists set down for some of the biggest parades and parties during the week-long festivities.
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In Recife, the municipal government is prepared to give 2,000 HIV tests, according to Agência de Notícias da AIDS. And at the city's Galo da Madrugada parade, considered to be one of the biggest Carnival blocks in the world, all glass bottles will be substituted for plastic bottles. There will even be theatrical performances about drug-use and AIDS put on at different locations around the city.
And in the smaller city of Maringá, in Paraná state, the municipal government has set up a mobile health unit to do HIV tests on-site from a bus, reported local newspaper O Diário do Norte do Paraná.