HIV AIDS A Predator in Paradise
Today the Caribbean has the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS outside of sub-Saharan Africa. Some Caribbean scholars are taking steps to educate the academy and national leaders about curbing the spread of the disease.
By B. Denise Hawkins

The Caribbean is legendary for the soothing rustle of blowing palm trees, sugar white beaches and breathtaking sunsets. It also is where about 2 percent of the region's adult population is living with HIV/AIDS, and the incidence rate is accelerating at a pace second only to sub-Saharan Africa. The Dominican Republic and Haiti together account for 85 percent of the total number of HIV/AIDS cases in the Caribbean.

In the two decades since the first AIDS case was diagnosed in the Caribbean, the disease has exploded into a global pandemic and catapulted the region to an unwanted place.

AIDS has become the leading cause of death for 15- to 44-year-olds in several English and non-English speaking island nations, and also is responsible for leaving an estimated 80,000 Caribbean children orphaned. Globally, 42 million people are living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, epidemiologists at the United Nations and World Health Organization announced in a report released in November. Of the 38.6 million infected adults, 19.2 million are women — slightly less than 50 percent.

But while many Caribbean governments have initiated programs to slow HIV/AIDS, few have scaled up the response to the levels necessary to turn the epidemic around, scholars say.

In the past 20 years, some government and education leaders have found it easier to prepare and protect their people from ravaging hurricanes than they have from the virus that causes AIDS, says Dr. Brendan C. Bain, a professor of community health at the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Kingston, Jamaica. During the early years, on the frontline of fighting and tracking AIDS, Bain and a handful of fellow scholars, epidemiologists and clinicians also played the waiting game when it came to enlisting significant support and resources from national leaders.