PERUVIAN AIDS SUFFERER AT HIS HOME WITH WIFE IN LIMA, 2002-07-09 (photo)

37-year-old Armando Figueroa (L) sits in his home with his wife Emerita Castillo (C) and daughter Yessenia, in a Peruvian shanty town in Lima, on July 9, 2002. Figueroa is one of thousands of AIDS sufferers in this poor Andean nation who cannot afford the sophisticated drugs that slow the spread of the killer disease. In Latin America, hope and helplessness exist side-by-side: some countries, like Brazil, hand out drugs and are waging a successful fight against the killer disease. But in other nations, thousands are doomed to die with no access to treatment. In a continent where flashy wealth co-exists with grinding poverty, hope and helplessness go hand-in-hand in the fight against HIV/AIDS, which has 40 million sufferers worldwide. The United Nations estimates 1.8 million are infected in Latin America. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares PO/GN