Brazil's President Says Sex Education Helps Combat Teenage Pregnancy, AIDS

According to this news article, published in the International Herald Tribune Americas edition, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said, in a speech to commemorate International Women's Day, that sex education is the best way to combat AIDS and teenage pregnancy. Silva said that 30% of Brazilian girls aged 15 to 17 leave school due to pregnancy and argued that sex education could help solve the problem.
In a country in which 183,000 Brazilians, according to the article, have died from AIDS and based on an estimate that 600,000 Brazilian people are HIV infected, Lula da Silva suggested holding a "national day against hypocrisy" stating that, "Sex will happen and you have teach how to have it. Only then will our country be free of AIDS and other infectious diseases."

The Brazilian government's anti-AIDS programme has reportedly been held up by international organisations as a model for the developing world for the following approaches to containing the epidemic in Latin America's largest country:

• distributing tens of millions of condoms each year;
• providing free anti-viral treatment to anyone who needs it; and
• frank talk about sex and AIDS.

In his speech, Lula da Silva highlighted using the schools, radio and television to deliver sex education nationally.