Rio takes action on World AIDS Day to the sound of Cazuza

The World AIDS Day has a special program in Rio de Janeiro. The objective is to draw attention to the importance of preventing and diagnosing the disease. On this Wednesday (1st), Cazuza Square, in the south of the city, had musical presentations, reading of poems and speeches on the subject.

According to the Ministry of Health, the country currently has approximately 730 thousand people with HIV undergoing antiretroviral therapy in public network units.

Lucinha Araújo, mother of Cazuza (an artist who died at age 32 as a result of AIDS) closely followed the performance of the cast of the musical “Cazas de Cazuza” and took advantage of the moment to reinforce the importance of care.

“People know how not to get AIDS. Cancer, for example, has been around for a hundred years…I had it myself. And nobody knows how it gets. Not AIDS, you can avoid it, just take care of yourself”, he warned.

Lucinha also said that she saw progress in fighting the disease when drug patents began to be broken in 2001. But for her, the road is still long.

“I think what got better was the breaking of patents, many years ago. The universe of retrovirals has opened up, but I think the cure is a long way off. Unfortunately. Aids has gone out of fashion, the truth is. People forget about this disease because today people look good, so they forgot what it’s like to have this disease and die from it. Everyone sees the figure of my son, who exposed himself, but that was unfortunately not enough”, he lamented.

Plaza Cazuza has a statue of the singer. The sculpture’s glasses were stolen a few days ago and replaced for today’s events. The act of vandalism did not affect Lucinha’s good mood.

“They robbed. But I think he (Cazuza) must have been happy, he must have said: they robbed Drummond’s (poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade) and now mine too. He was a Drummond fan, when he was younger he walked behind him on the street. I told him to be careful not to get in the way and he replied that he just wanted to drink from Drummond’s wisdom”, he recalled.

The Rio de Janeiro capital also started a mass HIV testing campaign today. To complete the tributes to the victims and encourage the diagnosis, tourist spots such as Christ the Redeemer and the Arcos da Lapa will be illuminated in red in order to draw attention to the issue.

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