F Donnie Forde

Once the impression was that if you weren’t white, male and homosexual your chances of contracting HIV/AIDS were minuscule, or in the most, considerably less than the mentioned suspects. Nothing could be further from the truth. AIDS, as a communicable affliction has no preference, nor respect any boundaries. It attacks all humans with equal vehemence and violence, regardless of race, gender or creed, to use the terms of the faithful.

Notwithstanding the many uncertainties and inclusiveness surrounding the disease there are some things of which we are reasonably sure. Firstly, HIV is the first step to AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), secondly AIDS is almost certainly fatal, with a mortality rate of nearly 100 percent in some places by those with the disease, and thirdly the most prevalent transmission of the virus is through sexual intercourse and blood transfusion. Death is brought about when the HIV virus overwhelming and destroy the healthy blood cells, which can no longer replicate quickly enough to mount a defense, only because the virus mutates so rapidly. On the medical front there have been some small advances. Unfortunately, the antiretroviral drugs currently being used to combat the disease is not a cure; it can only curtail or delay the effect—not stop it. Face with this as a consequence the ideal solution would be abstinence. But since that is not a realistic option we must turn to the measure of prevention: taking all necessary steps to avoid contracting the disease. This might be an easier task for developed nations, which has at their disposal all the wherewithal—scientists, medicine, media transmissions, and educational networks—implements not available to the underdeveloped countries and territories, as would include the Caribbean.

In a post-colonial era the destiny of the people of the Caribbean are in their own hands. They can no longer beseech, demand or command assistance from powerful, rich patron nations, as they once could, and were wont to do. And any help or aid that is extended from the richer nations would come at a price, measured against the significance, or importance of the recipient to the donor. As an example let’s say Haiti and Jamaica, are in dire needs of assistance to combat HIV, and call upon the EU for help, which has only limited ability to oblige. Thus the EU being both practical and imprudent would most certainly make its decision contingent upon which of the two it is most likely to get the best return from on its investment—not necessarily monetary, but could also be in support of other endeavors that might be of interest to it.

In Haiti, cases of HIV/AIDS are at heights that are only exceeded by nations of Sub-Sahara Africa, which has the highest incidences of AIDS in the world. And Haiti is likely to maintain this disreputable honor long into the future, mainly for the reason its economic and social worth is of little interest to those nations that are in the best positions to offer aid. The danger here, of course, is that without some kind of reversal the situation could become untenable. As is true of other poor nations the most prevalent form of transmission of the disease in Haiti has been through sexual liaisons, mostly through heterosexual contacts. Though in its latest release the UNAIDS monitor shows the virus to be now affecting Caribbean men and women at an equal rate. Significantly, much of these liaisons, whether heterosexual or homosexual, are termed commercial sex, only because the terms of their consummation may have been a negotiated one, in which money or equivalent services were offered.

Not lagging far behind Haiti are the nations of Jamaica and the Bahamas. The high incidence of HIV/AIDS in the former remains somewhat of a puzzle, in that it doesn’t suffer the same extremes of poverty as Haiti, and its economic health is not significantly worse off than the rest of the countries of the region. Moreover, the renown homophobic disposition of its people should be to its advantage in containing the disease, in that it acts as a deterrent to common indulgence by males of the same sex. This only further adds to the speculation that the failure to control the spread of the disease results from an intellectual deficit of its leaders. This becomes more reasonable a fact when measured against the enormous success of its sister member state, Barbados, which is second only to Cuba--a world’s leader--in combating the disease. Significantly, on the other hand, Jamaica suffers from a huge problem as an illicit drug disseminator, which can only abet the situation, given that illegal drug use is a major factor in the transmission of the disease. And, until this behavior is eradicated AIDS would continue to be a persistent menace to the people of the region.