16292: (Chamberlain) HIV in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

HIV testing, basic care go hand-in-hand in Haiti


NEW YORK, Aug 5 (Reuters) - A stand-alone center in Port-au-Prince, the
capital of impoverished Haiti, has a success story to tell.

The clinic was set up in 1985 to offer voluntary HIV testing and
counseling. In the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, doctors
describe how basic health care services were progressively added to the
clinic's operations of the following 15-year period.

During this interval, the number of individuals counseled and tested for
HIV annually rose from 142 in 1985 to 8175 in 1999, Dr. Warren D. Johnson
Jr. from Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York and
colleagues report. In 1999, 30% of adults and 10% of children tested
positive for HIV.

During 1999, more than one third of adults who came to the clinic and over
half of those testing positive for HIV benefited from at least one of the
primary care services (including HIV care, tuberculosis management,
sexually transmitted infection management, and reproductive health
services) offered by the clinic.

"While some view HIV care and HIV prevention as opposing programs vying for
limited resources, we believe that prevention and care are synergistic and
forged together will be a powerful weapon in the fight against AIDS in
Haiti and in many other developing countries," say the authors of the
article

The clinic's efforts paid off in preventing sexual transmission of HIV.
Many of the HIV-positive adults told a sexual partner to go for HIV testing
and counseling. Of the 85 uninfected spouses who underwent repeated HIV
testing, none had become positive during an average follow-up period of 18
months.

HIV-positive pregnant women were provided antiretroviral therapy to prevent
infection of their infants. According to the report, only seven children
became infected, representing an infection rate half that previously seen
in Haiti.

"This report demonstrates the feasibility, demand, and effective synergy of
integrated on-site primary care services and HIV VCT in Haiti," the team
concludes.


SOURCE: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, August 1, 2003.