HIV In Haiti

760 Words4 Pages
HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency syndrome) were very popular during the time when the NBA star Magic Johnson was diagnosed, since then, the awareness has dissolved, unlike the disease which is staying relatively stagnate in certain regions. The disease is more relevant in parts of the country that are lesser-developed but it does not mean it is not present in the well developed parts of the country. “HIV/AIDS can be transmitted from one already infected to the next by: blood to blood contact, semen, breast milk, oral sex, and even passed from mother to child through birth” (AIDS.org). The disease is to strong for the immune system to kill and over time the disease eats away at your immune system. This disease…show more content…
None of the first Haitians diagnosed with the new syndrome had ever been to Africa; most had never met an African. But many did have histories of sexual contact with North Americans. In a 1984 paper published in a scholarly journal, the Haitian physician Jean Gurin and colleagues revealed that 17% of their patients reported a history of sexual contact with tourists from North America. These exchanges involved the exchange of money, too, and so sexual tourism which inevitably takes place across steep grades of economic inequality was a critical first step in the introduction of HIV to Haiti” (Paul Farmer). “The disease HIV/AIDS is very present today in Haiti due to poverty, mass poverty, the lack of almost every necessity—clean water and shoes, medicine and food” (Kidder. Pt.3 Ch.13). Not all of Haiti is experiencing poverty and the full effect of this disease. The division of the wealthy vs. the poor was known as the epi divide, or epidemiological divide. Although the divide shared many common characteristics such as race, beliefs, and religion, the divide did separate what was most noticeable and that was wealth. On one side of the divide was the poverty. The lack of nutrition, water, and clean water lead to a weaker immune…show more content…
The only way money was made was selling yourself for money. Which just spread the disease quicker. Discrimination then took its course because the women who were selling themselves for money were seen as the primary carriers of then disease. “Most hospitals in the region are empty, not because of a local lack of treatable pathology: rather, patients have no money to pay for such care” (Paul Farmer pp1). With the lack of an educating system to make the people more aware of this disease, a steadily poor economy, and extreme poverty, the disease will continue to take its
Open Document