by Agnes Naswa

Created on: December 04, 2009   Last Updated: December 05, 2009

Poverty and Injustice Bar HIV/AIDS Progress in Haiti.

Haiti, a country located in the West Indies, has the unenviable distinction of being the poorest country in the Northern Hemisphere. It also has the distinction of suffering the injustice and instability that is inherent in a country that has suffered numerous coups and the attendant instability to society that derives from coups.

The decades of political chaos in this Caribbean Island state have allowed HIV and AIDS to flourish unchecked. This has left Haiti with the highest incidence rate of HIV in the world outside of sub-Saharan Africa.

According to a report by the International Development Agency Progressio titled HIV and AIDS in Haiti, the incidence of infection in the country stands at 3.8%. This disease is now the leading killer of women aged between 15 and 49 years old.

Those living in the poorest communities, more so the slums, are at the greatest risk of contracting HIV. The argument Progressio posits is that this disease cannot be effectively halted without first addressing the root causes, which in these case are the endemic poverty and injustice in the country. The report also gives descriptions of the practical experiences of persons facing the reality of the pandemic through a series of interviews.

One interview with a widowed mother of four is particularly telling. The widower narrates how she contemplated suicide after she was told that she had the disease, to her that realization was akin to being handed a death sentence.

She had wondered aloud about who was going to take care of her little daughter and sons being as it was her family had no money and it would be anathema for her to inform her kin that she was HIV positive.

Progressio further notes the failure by the Haitian government to take HIV and AIDS seriously and urgently. And that the government urgently needs to tackle the increase in sexual assaults and rapes which put women at a heightened risk of infection.

The problem is further compounded by poverty, which means many Haitians live in overcrowded conditions, have little hygiene and sanitation or clean water. Moreover they experience high rates of child malnutrition and under nutrition and they cannot afford decent healthcare or anti-retroviral drugs.

Many Haitians view national and international efforts to tackle the scourge with utmost suspicion. This is in part due to the fact of the neglect and misguided intervention by their former colonial overlords and the lack of an effective democratic system of government.

Ignorance and mysticism also means that a whooping 70%-90% of Haitians would rather consult a voodoo priest. Voodoo being a predominantly animistic mystical native religion which also has witchcraft influences.

Most of these Vodun or Voodoo priests don't see HIV as linked to behavior or infection; they chose to visit these at the expense of a qualified medical doctor. The poor are not only the group at highest risk of infection but are also most poorly prepared to cope with the disease.

Progressio believes that a comprehensive and holistic HIV and AIDS prevention and care requires that poverty and injustice are also addressed.

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