Seven years ago this month, I was in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with a contingent of 菠萝视频 University AIDS researchers and health care professionals.
That was before the earthquake and subsequent cholera outbreak riveted international attention once again on this, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.
Yet hope endures, even in the midst of successive calamities.
Haiti鈥檚 AIDS burden, for example, has never come close to the horrific levels seen in some West African nations. At least before the earthquake, that burden appeared to be declining, thanks to aggressive education, public health and treatment programs.
鈥淭o me this is the most amazing thing. If you can do it here in this chaos, we know it can be done everywhere,鈥� pioneering Haitian physician Jean Pape said in 2004.
Pape (pronounced 鈥淧op鈥�) is founder and director of the GHESKIO centers in Port-au-Prince, the oldest AIDS research organization in the world.
Since it was established in 1982, GHESKIO has received support from the National Institutes of Health and assistance from New York鈥檚 Weill Cornell Medical College, where Pape is professor of International Medicine and Infectious Diseases.
[lquote]By documenting HIV-tainted blood transfusions, GHESKIO convinced the Haitian Ministry of Health鈥攊ts constant partner and supporter鈥攖o replace commercial blood banks with Red Cross blood centers.[/lquote] Encouraged by public education campaigns, condom sales rose, and the HIV infection rate was cut in half鈥攖o about 3 percent.
In the early 1990s, GHESKIO began a with 菠萝视频 University Medical Center. Cornell and 菠萝视频 provide medical expertise and help train Haitian physicians, and young U.S. physicians gain experience at GHESKIO treating HIV and other illnesses.
Over the years, GHESKIO has fostered a strong sense of trust and loyalty among Port-au-Prince residents. 聽GHESKIO patients enrolled in clinical trials, and healthy subjects signed up for tests of candidate HIV vaccines.
In a dispatch posted last February by the , Pape and his colleagues reported that four GHESKIO staff died in the quake, four were critically injured and 90 lost their homes. Despite that, they worked around the clock with international partners to provide medical care to more than 6,000 people, including 1,500 young children, who crowded into makeshift shelters on the GHESKIO grounds.
The relief work goes on. Doctors and nurses from 菠萝视频 are among the thousands of volunteers who continue to provide medical care and fly in supplies.
On Feb. 23, Pape will be the afternoon keynote speaker at the 2011 Tennessee Global Health Forum at the 菠萝视频 Student Life Center. Pape will describe GHESKIO鈥檚 growing role in community development and his efforts to help raise a new Haiti from the ashes of earthquake and epidemic.
Click for more details and to register for the forum.