by Bj Binning

Created on: January 29, 2008

"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook"

As Americans, we would be making a grave mistake if we were not concerned with HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean. There are islands in the Caribbean which are designated as the top vacation spots in the world. Places like Aruba and Jamaica, among many others, are "Party Central" during spring break and the summer. And how does this affect the US? While we think that those places are so far away and out of sight is out of mind, this is not the case because AIDS knows no strangers. Unprotected sex is the leading mode of transmission of HIV within Caribbean communities, and when American tourists visit their intent is usually to get intoxicated and party. Most vacationers' intentions are to have sex with the exotic women or men in the country not thinking that they could sentence themselves to death by doing it. People from Africa and the Caribbean made up 18.5% of all new HIV infections diagnosed in 2005 ( UNAIDS report, 2006 ). And when people vacation and have unprotected sex, they then turn around and bring the disease back home to their families in the United States.

HIV/AIDS is a very big challenge for the Caribbean, and the US government should be concerned. It affects over 40 million people worldwide, yet the full extent of the impact of HIV/AIDS is still not completely understood. Since HIV was first documented in 1981, over 25 million people have died of AIDS. In 2005, 4.1 million people were infected with HIV, roughly the same number of people living in the state of Colorado (Caricom, 2006).
In the Caribbean, one in every six people lives on less than a $1 per day and have families with household members infected with HIV. Many also experience increased medical costs, reduced income, and have fewer resources for education and family care. In addition, the loss of educated adults to AIDS reduces the number of knowledgeable resources to combat the disease and puts less experienced staff into critical decision-making, training, business, and policy positions (Worldbank.org, 2007).

Less than 10% of the total HIV/AIDS population has access to medical treatment that allows them to lead productive lives. One of the main barriers to access to the medicine for HIV/AIDS is money. AIDS is a leading cause of death among 25-44 year-olds in the Caribbean. The Caribbean is the second-most affected region in the world, with an HIV prevalence rate of 1%, after sub-Saharan Africa, and the most affected in the Americas.

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