An estimated 1.7 million people are living with HIV in Latin America, more than 40 percent of them in Brazil, according to the Joint U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 2008 figures.

The region's overall prevalence rate is a relatively low 0.5 percent, although the smaller countries in Central America have higher rates, with the highest in Guyana - 2.5 percent.

On the positive side, Latin America has the best treatment coverage in the developing world.

Although Brazil has the highest number of HIV/AIDS cases, it also has one of the lowest prevalence rates of 0.6 percent. It has managed to stabilise its epidemic and its prevention and treatment programmes are recognised as a global role model.

Bolivia and Nicaragua have the region's lowest prevalence rate of 0.2 percent, according to UNAIDS.

In many countries the highest infection rates are among men who have sex with men, according to UNAIDS. And unprotected sex between men is the main driver of the epidemic in Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

However many countries' prevention programmes tend to ignore both men who have sex with men and injecting drug users.

Stigma and discrimination against people in both these high risk groups help drive the epidemic underground, according to the World Bank.

Widespread poverty and migration, lack of information about the epidemic in rural areas and rampant homophobia have all helped the spread of AIDS.

Brazil is a global model for prevention and treatment. Although it is home to more than 40 percent of all HIV cases in Latin America, its prevalence rate has been a low and steady 0.5-0.6 since 2000, according to UNAIDS.

In the early 1990s it began rigorously promoting condom use - a campaign which is stepped up every year in the lead-up to the annual carnival.

Then in 1996 the government offered free HIV treatment to everyone, using Brazilian pharmaceutical companies to supply cheap generic drugs. The free treatment helped people to come forward for testing, knowing that they would not face a potential death sentence. Its treatment coverage is among the most comprehensive in the world.

Brazil's AIDS campaigns tried to ease discrimination against injecting drug users, people with HIV/AIDS and men who have sex with men.

The country also promotes HIV testing, condom use, sex education and AIDS prevention in schools.

Condom usage grew by 50 percent between 1998 and 2005, according to UNAIDS. However, infection rates among injecting drug users are still very high.

World Bank researchers in 2003 found that in the southeast the virus had spread from high risk groups to the general population.

Overall 230,000 people are infected with HIV in the Caribbean, with the majority living in Haiti and the Dominican Republic - which share the same island.

The Caribbean has the second highest prevalence rate in the world - 1.1 percent - after sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 14,000 people died of AIDS in 2007.

One exception is Cuba where the prevalence rate is less than 0.1 percent. But Cuba's controversial AIDS policies - which until recently included quarantining and forced testing - have been hotly debated.

The pandemic is mainly fuelled by the region's sex industry. A smaller factor is unsafe sex between men.

Haiti has the largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the region. After decades of violence, instability and coups the country is now the poorest in the Western hemisphere.

The country's HIV prevalence of 2.2 percent is worked out based on incidence among pregnant women. Surveys of pregnant women in the country's main cities show a massive drop in HIV prevalence from 9.4 percent in 1993 to 3.3 percent in 2004. UNAIDS says this is probably the result of increased condom use and abstinence, and improvements in blood safety.

But it is also partly because of AIDS deaths - treatment is available to 31 percent of those who need it, according to UNAIDS. Experts say another factor could be that when people fall seriously ill, many return to their rural homes.

But there are signs that Haiti's epidemic could grow again - especially in rural areas where a survey by a Haitian research institute on children, Institut Haitien de l'Enfance, and a U.S.-based firm, ORC Macro, found that only a third of rural men said they used a condom the last time they had casual sex.

Cuba has been extremely successful in containing the virus - its prevalence rate is one of the lowest in the world with 0.1 percent. But the government has used controversial methods to prevent its spread.

When the country's first case emerged in the early 1980s the government declared a public health emergency.

It forcibly quarantined people living with HIV, and traced and tested their sexual partners. It tested all Cubans who had visited Africa, as well as pregnant women. Those found to be HIV positive were given drugs to prevent transmission to their unborn children, and their babies were delivered by caesarean section.

At the same time a massive media and information campaign was launched to teach people about the virus and encourage them to use condoms.

The rules have been relaxed a little since then. There is no forced testing, but those in high risk groups are strongly encouraged to come forward for the test.

Those found to be HIV positive attend a two-month education programme in a sanatorium. And the government maintains a database of those with HIV and their chain of sexual partners.

Until 2001 very few anti-retrovirals were available on the island because of a U.S. trade embargo. The WHO says 100 people received treatment through donations. But in 2001 Cuban laboratories began making generic versions, and now the government offers free treatment to all AIDS patients. UNAIDS says death rates have fallen by 72 percent since 2001.