Mauricio, 24 years old, is married and has no children

Mauricio, 24 years old, is married and has no children. He was born and lives in Porto
Alegre, in Rio Grande do Sul. According to a study by the Ministry of Health, HIV prevalence
in IDUs in Porto Alegre is 64.3 per cent, the highest in Brazil (in Salvador for example, the
rate is only 6.4 per cent).
Mauricio started sniffing cocaine when he was 13 years old. He didn’t use other drugs, not
even alcohol, but he quickly moved on to use crack.
Although able to live with his mother at home (who was separated from his father), he lived
on the street most of the time, surviving on small thefts.
He continued his use, but meanwhile he “could not feel anything anymore” and wanted
something stronger. Sniffing cocaine or crack no longer satisfied him.
When he was 16, he sought out a group he already knew, who were injecting cocaine users.
They were all older than he was and he started injecting with them. He injected with them for
2 years before getting sick, at 18 years.
He began having persistent vomiting and headaches. He went to a hospital and was diagnosed
with sinusitis. He believes he was a victim of prejudice for being a drug user: why would they
attend to a drug user who “is a lost cause” rather than attending to a worker?
His mother and sister supported him and, worried about his symptoms, took him to a private
doctor. The exams showed he had meningitis, caused by the tuberculosis bacteria. Referred
to the public health system in Porto Alegre, he was cared for and well treated.
He was in a coma for 20 days and after his hospitalization still went through a terrible period,
not being able to feed himself and realizing that he was seropositive with a manifesting
opportunistic infection. His mother and sister supported him at all times, and without them
he “wouldn’t have survived”. At this point he had to make a decision: he knew he couldn’t
continue injecting drugs, he wouldn’t survive. So he made the decision between life and
death. And he chose to live.
As soon as his physical conditions allowed, he found a self-help group for seropositive
people. He felt like his life was “useless” and that he would never find a job. In this group
(GAPA—support group for prevention of AIDS), he regained his self-esteem, mainly thanks to
meeting Andrea, a 39-year-old HIV positive woman working in prevention. They have been
married for the last 4 years, supporting each other through treatment.
Through her he got to know the Harm Reduction Project—supported by the National
Coordination of STD/AIDS and UNODC under the National AIDS Programme—and did what
he had thought impossible: he started working! Through this work he was able to take part
in the global network meeting in Cuiaba, in September of 2001.
As for cocaine, he reports never having used again, although using marijuana lightly.
Thanks to antiretroviral treatment, he is doing well and his health is stable.
Currently, he is so strong that he applied for adult studying scholarships that he read about
in the newspaper: in December 2002 he will be able to finish his fundamental education