This article discusses the actions of the state in relation to health policy for the prevention and treatment of people with HIV/AIDS, which was the focus of a study conducted in 2011 and 2012 that looked at three countries in the South-South axis: Brazil, South Africa and Mozambique, all of which are marked by income inequality and poverty, and by ongoing processes of the construction of citizenship. It used a dialectical-historical method to conduct a quantitative and qualitative study, which included an analysis of secondary data about epidemics, the socio-economic reality and healthcare policy in these countries. The fieldwork involved observation, focal groups and interviews at healthcare clinics in Recife, Cape Town and Maputo. It concludes that the concretization of the right to healthcare and to life has been made possible by the greater involvement of the state in guaranteeing services and distribution of antiretroviral medication, with more significant advances in Brazil than in the other countries.
HIV/AIDS; Healthcare policy; Right to healthcare