12188: HIV/AIDS Experts Meet to Discuss Pandemic Crisis in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

HIV/AIDS Experts Meet to Discuss Pandemic Crisis in Haiti

  WASHINGTON, May 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Members of the Haitian health community met today with international HIV/AIDS experts to discuss the current status of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Haiti.  The group set out to identify solutions to a socio-economic problem that has reached crisis proportions in recent years.

The panel was organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a public policy think tank, located in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Antoine Augustin, an advisor to the Haitian Ministry of Health in Port-au-Prince, presented an overview of the Government of Haiti's National HIV/AIDS plan of action, and described the process by which the Government applied for assistance through the new Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and
Malaria.  One partner in the joint government-private sector application collaboration, Clinic Bon Sauveur, received one of the first grants from the Global Fund amounting to approximately $10 million.

"The HIV/AIDS crisis is a result of the collapse of the public-health system in Haiti," said Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of Clinic Bon Sauveur and a Harvard physician.  "As clinics and hospitals in the region close or turn away patients due to their inability to pay, the patients have come to our
facility.  This is the impact of an embargo that keeps out much needed international assistance.  I have worked for almost 20 years in Haiti and have seen U.S. aid flow smoothly and generously during the years of Duvalier dictatorship and the military juntas that followed.  It is shameful that the
current embargo has been enforced during the tenure of a democratically elected government."

Dr. Farmer refers to an embargo implemented by the United States against the Government of Haiti that blocks all development and humanitarian loans and grants provided by the International Financial Institutions such as the Inter-
American Development Bank, the World Bank and the  ternational Monetary Fund.

This embargo is applied to leverage a solution to the political impasse occurring between the Government of Haiti and one opposition party called the Democratic Convergence.

As one of the poorest countries in the world, Haiti also has the highest seroprevalence rates in the Caribbean and the highest rate outside of sub-Saharan African.  "This problem must be resolved at the national and local levels," said Patricio Marquez, a leading HIV/AIDS official at the World Bank.

"It is no longer simply a health problem, it is now a development crisis and should be treated as such."

Congresswomen Barbara Lee (CA) and U.S. Representative Donna Christensen (Virgin Islands), who is also a physician, described the growing Congressional opposition to U.S. policy toward Haiti and steps Members of the Congressional
Black Caucus are taking to urge the Bush Administration to change its policy objectives.  "We have introduced legislation calling on the President to reverse this destructive policy toward the poorest nation in our  hemisphere," said Representative Lee.  "The statistics of poverty, lac of health care and the resulting spread of HIV/AIDS can be arrested by a strong commitment of
assistance from bilateral and multilateral sources.  As one of our closest neighbors, and as a country where millions of Haitian-Americans reside, the U.S. has a particular responsibility to be a leader in providing as much aid
as possible to Haiti."

 Throughout the conference, the panelists reiterated the staggering statistics of poverty and the high rate of HIV/AIDS in Haiti.  With over 300,000 infected persons, Haiti now represents more than 90% of HIV/AIDS cases in the Caribbean.  This high rate of infection has resulted in the growth in the number of "AIDS orphans" now numbering around 163,000.  The low level of development in Haiti is also marked by the desperate state of Haiti's health care system where there is only 1 physician in 11,000 patients.  Only 40% of Haitians have access to potable water and the infant mortality rate has sky-rocketed to 140 deaths for every 1000 live births.

The panelists concluded that the solution to the problem of HIV/AIDS in Haiti begins with a robust public-private partnership that includes close collaboration with the Government of Haiti and its Ministry of Health.

Global Market Solutions is a marketing communications firm providing services to government and corporate clients worldwide.  GMS is also a registered foreign agent for the Government of Haiti.