HIV In Haiti

This large population has dealt with and suffered from several detrimental diseases. Even before the 2010 earthquake, nearly half the causes of deaths have been attributed to HIV/AIDS,

HIV/AIDS has been responsible for one of the worst epidemics in history. In her book “The Invisible Cure” Helen Epstein details why Africa in particular was so devastated by the disease, which countries failed and which succeeded in the struggle to contain the virus, and why this happened. Epstein highlights a particular phenomenon, that first took place in Uganda, but which can be translated to many countries and situations, and which she calls “the invisible cure.”

Mass vaccination is the most likely cause of the epidemic. “A specific pool of Koprowski's vaccine was later shown to have been contaminated by an unknown virus.” This vaccine was given to over one million people from 1957-1960 and coincidentally there is no documented case of HIV or AIDS related infections before 1959.

This history of HIV/AIDS as a blurry timeline before the 1980’s since that was around the time reports came in which eventually become an HIV report. The origin of HIV can be traced back to the early part of the century. Some believe that in the 1920’s chimpanzees from the Congo came into contact with humans (Avert, 2016). Though reports were not identified as HIV until the 1980’s, the belief that HIV was already scattered throughout four other continents may have been incident (Avert, 2016). Even though for the past 30 years the world has been diligently working to find a cure and pushing prevention, we are still struggling each year with increasing diagnosis. The beginning of HIV did end with lots of death, but now with our improved antiviral medication there is hope for many.

When a fatal disease becomes known to a society but lacks explanation our instinct as humans is to jump to conclusions, whether they are logical or not. We bargain with our faith, we search for any evidence to support our conjectures, we deny the truth of the disease, and we place blame on each other. All of these desperate acts of justification are driven by fear—fear of the unknown. The combination of fear and ignorance that pushes people to make conclusions is readily notable in the AIDS epidemic of Haiti. Haitians reacted to AIDS in a similar manner as other cultures, but there are also differences that are specific to their community. Like many cultures, Haitians reasoned the occurrence of AIDS with explanations beyond the scope of medicine, with diseases that were known to them, or were instead in complete denial. The uniqueness of the occurrence of AIDS in Haiti was that there was no direct cause that could be addressed. Thus, while under significant scrutiny as the origin of AIDS, Haitians reacted to the epidemic by blaming the existence of AIDS on poor socioeconomic status, on sorcery, and on other people or countries.

One important scene in the film ‘The Age of Aids’ is “Port Au Prince, Haiti”. In this scene it outlines the conditions in Haiti, which were very poor and it turn left the city defenseless against the new disease. In 70’s and 80’s the disease began to be seen by doctors and priests who were being sought after to cure a unseen disease which left the people with the “look of death, [making them] so skinny you could see their bones”. The scene then goes on to take a look at one of the first HIV clinics in Port Au Prince, which was opened in the roughest parts of town. One of the surprising things that this clinic found when they were looking at the patients coming in was that the mean they were analyzing had more

The AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, consisted entirely of deaths, illnesses and most of all fear, changing the way society viewed gay men. Being that it was only happening to homosexuals and everyone became super homophobic and believed that the disease was a cause of being gay until it started happening to women too. This affected the entire medical metaphysics in society on what is considered safe methods of having sex and health precautions as well. Before the 1980s hit HIV was thought to originate form Kinshasa which is in Congo. In the 1920 HIV crossed between chimpanzees to humans on the Democratic Republic of humans.(Avert 1). AIDS is caused by HIV and is the last stage of HIV and can lead to death. It attacks every single

Paul Farmer says that the “Haitian AIDS epidemic…[is] best understood by taking the long view” (152). What he means by this is that you must look at the whole picture, you have to go beyond the surface to understand how and why it became an epidemic. You must at least be familiar with the Haitians history to understand their response to the epidemic, and how it spread all over Haiti.

In The Invisible Cure, Helen Epstein talks about why HIV/AIDS rate is so high in Africa compared to the rest of the world. Through the book, she gives us an account of the disease and the struggles that many health experts and ordinary Africans went through to understand this disease, and how different African countries approached the same problem differently. Through this paper, I will first address the different ways Uganda and Southern African countries, South Africa and Botswana in particular, dealt with this epidemic, and then explain how we can use what we have learned from these African countries to control outbreaks of communicable disease elsewhere around the world.

AIDS was first reported in Botswana in 1985. It seemed to have started from two male homosexuals within the region. From there, it spread through sex, needles, and combining blood. Since the virus was not familiar to anyone in Africa, the two men were clueless that they had the virus and continued with their everyday routines, which led to the cause of spreading the AIDS/HIV virus. AIDS continued to spread during the diamond boom, when as diamonds became a huge and more profitable commodity, there were more and more diamond mines operating in Botswana. The higher the demand for diamonds, the more mines needed workers. As a result, workers from different villages came to look for work in the diamond

Dr. Farmer noted in the Mountains beyond Mountains book (2003) written by Tracey Kidder, that Haiti has increased rates of infant mortality, tuberculosis, malnutrition, HIV and AIDS. In an article published by Sophie Arie; titled What’s next for Haiti’s healthcare? (2011) notes that, “Haiti has the highest rates of infant, under-five and maternal mortality in the Western hemisphere. Diarrhea, respiratory infections, malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS are the leading causes of death” (Arie 2011, 340).

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS is a pandemic problem affecting global health. At the end of 2015, 36.7 million people were living with HIV/AIDS globally. The rate of incidence is more prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa with almost 1 in every 24 adults living with HIV/AIDS. In the united states, HIV/AIDS is a diversified health problem affecting all sexes, ages and races and involving the transmission of multiple risk behavior. However, with the introduction of various prevention programs and antiretroviral drugs, the incidence of HIV/AIDS has reduced.

The most common infectious diseases contributing to mortality in Haiti include HIV/AIDS, Pneumonia, Meningitis, water and foodborne illnesses and Tuberculosis (WHO, 2006). Additionally, Dengue fever, Malaria and Anthrax have also contributed to mortality and are quite common in Haiti. In Haiti, Malaria is an indigenous disease. Moreover, cholera is another bacterial disease that took the lives of many after the earthquake. The Haiti cholera outbreak was the worst epidemic in the nation. The cholera epidemic has caused 9,000 deaths and affected more than 735,000 people since October 2010 when the outbreak began in the aftermath of the earthquake (Haiti, 2015).

Just as clearly, experience shows that the right approaches, applied quickly enough with courage and resolve, can and do result in lower HIV infection rates and less suffering for those affected by the epidemic. An ever-growing AIDS epidemic is not inevitable; yet, unless action against the epidemic is scaled up drastically, the damage already done will seem minor compared with what lies ahead. This may sound dramatic, but it is hard to play down the effects of a disease that stands to kill more than half of the young adults in the countries where it has its firmest hold—most of them before they finish the work of caring for their children or providing for their elderly parents. Already, 18.8 million people around the world have died of AIDS, 3.8 million of them children. Nearly twice that many—34.3 million—are now living with HIV, the virus [9].

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region of the world that is most affected by HIV/AIDS. The United Nations reports that an estimated 25.4 million people are living with HIV and that approximately 3.1 million new infections occurred in 2004. To put these figures in context, more than 60 percent of the people living with the infection reside in Africa. Even these staggering figures do not quite capture the true extent and impact that this disease causes on the continent. In 1998, about 200,000 Africans died as a result of various wars taking place on the continent. In that same year, more than 2 million succumbed to HIV/AIDS (Botchwey, 2000).