by Tres Mali Scott

Created on: March 01, 2008   Last Updated: June 05, 2009

The Caribbean, Dominican Republic, and Haiti receive US dollars to help fight AIDS. These countries have "sex tourism". The US President's Emergency Plan (PEPFAR) for AIDS relief spent $6.4 million, on individuals that condemn sex work $55 million in US dollars from PEPFAR flowed into organizations and agencies in Haiti. Critics state the pledge to condemn sex work reduces aid to those most at risk.

The rates of infection are dropping, Dr. Jean Pape (2007)states two reasons in decrease in HIV infection from 8% to 2%:
1. Promoting Condoms
2. Screening for other sexually transmitted diseases
Many cases come from rape of young girls and adolescents. Sex tourism comes from deeply divided an largely impoverished areas.

These sex workers service the penitentiary for less than $5.00 and tourist for about $85.00. In these penitentiaries AIDS is undetected or untreated. Infectious illnesses and deaths are not tracked for public health like the US, including AIDS. The data is difficult to get.

The problem is International, the US has the highest rated among industrialized countries of individuals "living with AIDS". The better health care the longer individuals live.

Young people are offered some programs to socialize. Many of them were sex workers. Once they contract HIV agencies and organizations like The Movement of United Women (Movimiento de Mujeres Unido) and The International Harm Reduction Association assist them. They may return home. Once they return to were they came from, many other agencies and organizations offer education. The anti-retrieval drugs introduced in the mid-1990s in the US turned HIV from a near-certain death sentence into a chronic but manageable disease (Barton, 2007).

Many of the agencies and organizations treat young people that are raped, some as young as nine years old. Other countries have practices and beliefs that in the US are considered human rights violations. Because infectious illnesses and death are not tracked for public health like the US, and the data is difficult to get it is difficult to change the systems that cause the rapes.

In conclusion, sex tourism in other countries is something US Americans should be very concerned with. The US Emergency Plan (PEPFAR) for AIDS relief is helping and agencies and organizations that receive US dollars do have to track funds and statistics.

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