Latin America's situation is not the catastrophic reality of Africa, where there are 25 million people with HIV -- two-thirds of the global total.

But Andean and Central American countries are seeing alarming increases in the number of people with HIV, some nearing 50 percent for the 2001-2003 period. Such is the case of Colombia, where the number of people with HIV/AIDS rose from 130,000 to 190,000; Peru (53,000 to 82,000); Venezuela (73,000 to 110,000); Honduras (51,000 to 63,000); and Panama (11,000 to 16,000).

In South America's Southern Cone region, Paraguay also saw a 50-percent increase, though the overall total is relatively low for this country of 6.2 million people. There were around 10,000 cases in 2001, and 15,000 in 2003.

However, these are estimates, and are not rigorous enough for a precise assessment of each country. In Brazil, for example, UNAIDS recognizes a minimum of 320,000 people with HIV and a maximum of 1.1 million, to reach an average of 660,000.

For Peru, the average comes from the minimum estimate of 40,000 and the maximum of 140,000.

The Caribbean region faces a serious situation, with Haiti reporting 5.6 percent of the population as being HIV positive, the highest incidence outside of Africa. The Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago both have rates above three percent.

In Latin America, the main ways the virus is spread indicate how diverse the problem is:

Shared needles among illegal drug users and unprotected sex between men are the two leading vectors for HIV infection in South America.

In Central America, it is spread through unprotected sex -- heterosexual or homosexual. More than 10 percent of the women working in the Honduran sex industry are HIV positive. The rate among gay men in Nicaragua is nine percent, and in El Salvador 18 percent.

The UNAIDS report also underscores some of the advances made in prevention and antiretroviral treatment in some Latin American countries, particularly in Brazil.

The ''cocktail'' of AIDS drugs, offered free of cost in Brazil since 1996 to those who need them, has cut AIDS-related deaths in half and saved 2.2 billion dollars in hospitalization costs.

Other countries in the Latin American-Caribbean region -- Argentina, Barbados, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico and Uruguay -- also offer universal coverage for antiretroviral drugs to the population with HIV/AIDS.

But it is in Brazil where distribution has reached massive proportions. Of the 400,000 people worldwide who have access to this treatment, 140,000 are Brazilians.

Prevention efforts, meanwhile, have helped many countries, including Brazil and the Dominican Republic, to reduce HIV infection rates, says UNAIDS, which estimates there were 38 million people with the virus in 2003, three million more than in 2001, and 20 million people who have died from AIDS since 1981, when the first case was identified.

While Thailand and Uganda were strong examples of how effective prevention campaigns can be, Brazil also stood out as an ''example for the world'' of the contribution that civil society groups can make towards controlling AIDS, said Pedro Chequer, UNAIDS director in Brazil.

Prevention programmes and the free distribution of AIDS drugs were created as the result of an intense dialogue, which did involve some tensions, between the government and non-governmental organizations, the gay movement and associations of other segments of the population considered ''at risk'' of HIV/AIDS.

Brazilians with HIV also organized into groups and networks to propose policies and to demand more appropriate focuses for prevention and treatment campaigns.

Brazil is seen as a leader in cooperation with other developing countries to combat the epidemic, providing treatment for people with HIV/AIDS in other countries, but focusing on training health professionals and transferring knowledge of how to organize the health system to distribute the life-saving antiretroviral drugs efficiently.