Imagine traveling hours to a government clinic to receive HIV/AIDS medicine and treatment—only to find out no medicine is there. This is the experience of hundreds of Puerto Ricans who are unable to afford expensive HIV/AIDS medicine and private care, which can add up to more than $25,000 a year.
Puerto Rico’s 12,000 HIV/AIDS patients often wait for a month to receive treatment due to the disorganization and misuse of health grants. The Ryan White Act, passed in the U.S. Congress, has a budget of $53 million, but the island’s health department offices are currently under criminal investigation for possible misuse of funds.
The situation facing HIV/AIDS patients in the Dominican Republic is no better. The World Bank recently decided to cut funding for HIV/AIDS treatment programs, which account for 20 percent of all those infected in the country.
A shining light in the Caribbean is socialist Cuba, which is not dependent on external assistance to solve its health care problems. Its .05 percent HIV/AIDS rate is the lowest in the Americas and one of the lowest in the world.
Cuba has developed a comprehensive health care system that includes preventative care and easy access to low-cost antiretroviral drugs. Although more than twice the size of Puerto Rico, in Cuba there are 4,800 people living with HIV and fewer than 500 died last year due to AIDS-related diseases.
Cuba has established a national electronic registry that facilitates the monitoring and the clinical follow up of its patients, and each patient gets a personal card to collect their antiretroviral drugs at the hospital pharmacy. Cuba has agreed to help countries highly affected by the epidemic to build similar systems.
