22653: (Craig) VoA: Haiti AIDS Program Offers Hope (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <hoosier@att.net>


Health & Medicine Haiti AIDS Program Offers Hope Jim Teeple Haiti 07 Jul
2004, 16:29 UTC Few countries in the world have been as devastated by
AIDS as Haiti. The Caribbean nation is the poorest country in the
western hemisphere and suffers from the highest rate of AIDS infection
in the region. For years Haitians suffered and died from AIDS in poverty
and isolation. However, an innovative program started a few years ago
has begun to reverse that trend, surprising health experts around the
world. VOA's Jim Teeple recently traveled to a small town in rural Haiti
where there is now hope for those suffering from AIDS. The crowd forms
early at the Medishare dispensary and clinic in Thomonde, a town of
about 30,000 people in Haiti's central plateau. Until just over two
years ago there was no clinic and little hope for the sick in Thomonde,
a market town about 100 kilometers north of Port-au-Prince. Now, however
there is hope for the sick in Thomonde, and especially for those
suffering from HIV and AIDS. Two years ago, an experimental program to
administer anti-retroviral drugs to AIDS patients was begun in Thomonde.
About 150 residents of Thomonde now receive anti-retroviral drugs to
treat AIDS. Dr. Patrick Almozar, a young doctor at the Medishare clinic,
says to make sure his patients take their drugs the clinic relies on
workers known as accompagnateurs. "So in Thomonde we have someone called
an accompagnateur. The accompagnateur is someone who has to give the
medication one or two times a day," he explained. "So when they
[patients] have a problem with complications, the accompagnateur
accompanies the patient to us, and we see if we have to change the
medication or stop it. So most of the time we do not have a lot of
problems with complications." Dr. Almozar and his colleagues in Thomonde
are on the front lines of a medical revolution. They are pioneering new
ways to treat some of the estimated 40 million people around the world,
most of them poor, who are infected with HIV, the virus that causes
AIDS. Roughly 22 million people have died from AIDS, but few countries
have suffered more than Haiti where an estimated 30,000 people die from
the disease every year. Beginning in 1998, Harvard University Medical
School Professor Dr. Paul Farmer began administering anti-retroviral
drugs to Haitian peasants at his clinic in Cange, about 20 kilometers
from Thomonde. Dr. Farmer who runs the organization "Partners in Health"
was defying conventional wisdom, which held that anti-retroviral drugs
that control HIV and AIDS were too expensive and too complicated to
administer to rural poor people who live in countries like Haiti. The
antiretroviral drugs have had a dramatic effect on the lives of those
suffering from AIDS. Just over one year ago Jeanette, a mother of five,
had seen her life destroyed by AIDS. She and her husband, both suffering
from AIDS had lost their life savings as they sought cures from a local
Hougon, or voodoo priest. Jeanette's husband, who had refused to accept
medical treatment, died from AIDS. Pregnant and desperate, Jeanette went
to the Medishare clinic in Thomonde where Dr. Almozar quickly put her on
anti-retroviral therapy. Now, one year after she began taking
antiretroviral drugs Jeanette says her biggest problem is gaining
weight. She has a new job working at the Thomonde clinic helping others
like herself. Jeanette, who asked that her last name not be broadcast,
says taking the drugs is not always easy, and the person who keeps her
alive is her accompagnateur, who is always there to make sure she takes
her medication. "Sometimes I may feel very depressed. Other patients
feel very depressed taking the medication, and when you have the
accompagnateur it gives you encouragement," she said. "We need to take
the medication twice a day, and sometimes we may be negligent, we may
fail to take the medicine. When we have the acompagnateur, it gives us
the strength and the encouragement to continue with the regimen." When
Jeanette started taking antiretroviral drugs, Dr. Almozar gave her a
list of accompagnateurs in the Thomonde area. Seeing the name of her old
friend Ermancie Desernes on the list, Jeanette chose her friend as her
accompagnateur. Ermancie Desernes, who works with several other AIDS
patients, says the key to being a good accompagnateur is discretion. "I
go to their houses, we sit around, and we joke around, even if there are
a hundred people sitting around, I do not expressly tell everybody what
I am there for," she explained. "I will pick a moment in time where I
will discreetly go to the side and administer the medication and then be
on my way." Ermancie Desernes says sometimes her patients are distraught
over the social stigma associated with AIDS. She tells them to ignore
their neighbors and focus on taking their medication and getting on with
their lives. She also says she can usually spot people in the community
who might need her help. "I cannot just see somebody and say right away
that they have the disease. But, if I suspect somebody has the disease,
I just try and encourage them to go the clinic and see the doctor," she
added. Ermancie Desernes says she has referred a number of people to the
Thomonde clinic who are now receiving anti-retroviral drugs like her
friend Jeanette. She says she does not mind the long days, which often
begin before dawn and end late at night. Accompagnateurs receive three
weeks of training and are paid about $40 a month. They often deliver
their drugs on horseback or walk several hours to remote areas around
Thomonde. For patients like Jeanette, the drugs have meant the
difference between life and death. But Jeannette says the drugs not only
saved her life, but also the life of the child she was carrying when she
discovered she had AIDS. Because she began her antiretroviral treatment
while she was pregnant, her infant has so far shown no sign of HIV
infection.
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectid=6D67CE2F-8B31-4542-A386E0E22564130B&title=Haiti%20AIDS%20Program%20Offers%20Hope&catOID=45C9C786-88AD-11D4-A57200A0CC5EE46C&categoryname=Health%20%26%20Medicine#



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Daniel Craig
(718) 818-0818 /home
(718) 720-0202 /cell