By Monica Oblitas
As a newly-qualified doctor, Ronald Andrade worked in a leper and tuberculosis hospital in one of Bolivia's most deprived regions.
The discrimination and rejection faced by the patients, even by their families, made a deep impression on the young doctor, and prompted him to study further into ways of combating disease.
Traveling to Venezuela for a post-graduate degree in immunology in 1983, Andrade soon chose to focus on HIV/AIDS, a largely unknown disease at the time.
Returning to Bolivia in 1987, Andrade discovered a huge gap of knowledge among doctors, the country's health authorities and the general public about the disease.
In the absence of any diagnostic facilities to identify the HIV virus, medicine to treat it and information campaigns to raise public awareness, the disease carried an automatic death sentence.
Andrade, now 60, pushed hard to get the country's health ministry to set up the country's first diagnostic laboratory capable of spotting the virus, which he now heads, and offering free tests for everyone.
He also urged the health authorities to launch a campaign to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in the country, which prompted the creation of a number of self-help groups in the country of people living with the disease.
The efforts of Andrade, Bolivian health officials and local activists helped to ensure that significant quantities of generic retroviral drugs manufactured in Brazil found their way to medical centres across the country.
Despite his efforts, the incidence of the disease increased in Bolivia in the late 1990s, particularly among young people, and it is now found in both urban and rural areas, targeting mainly the most deprived sections of the community.
While the diagnosis of HIV/AIDS in Bolivia is improving with greater access to clinics and better public information, the rate of infection through vertical transmission from mother to child is on the increase.
Andrade says that the problem of HIV / AIDS in Bolivia and Latin America is not just a medical issue, but also a social and economic one, reflected in violence against women, excessive consumption of alcohol and a lack of sexual education among young people.
While there has been progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS, he says much work remains to be done, particularly in defending the rights of people living with the disease and their families.
Monica Oblitas is a journalist with 'Los Tiempos' magazine in Bolivia. This article is part of a series from alumni of the Thomson Reuters Foundation HIV/AIDS reporting course in Bangkok, 10-14 November. Any opinions are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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