How Concerned Should Americans Be About HIV/AIDs to the Caribbean?

Global warning 2008 AD: Potential HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean countries

In the year 2008, Americans are becoming increasingly concerned about the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean and rightly so. Many people are also becoming more and more aware of the threat of HIV/AIDS, in many other countries of the world, as there is no country which remains exempt from the threat of this devastating disease, which is gradually running rampant throughout the world.

The people who live in Caribbean countries are vulnerable and wide open to HIV/AIDS infection, for a number of different reasons.

First, the Caribbean region is an extremely high risk area for HIV/AIDS, partly because of open tourism. There are virtually thousands of people, who are entering the Caribbean countries, from all over the world, every day. This includes people from many other parts of the world, where HIV/AIDS is already documented, as being widespread.

Secondly, the status of health care in these Caribbean countries, depending upon the area, may or may not be on a high enough level, to prevent an influx of the disease or to provide the necessary treatment necessary to control the spread of HIV/AIDS, if an epidemic were to begin and run rampant.

Thirdly, the poverty level in the Caribbean countries is extremely high, rendering people from this region likely to have immune deficiencies, severe enough to elevate the spread of the disease.

These three reasons alone would suggest that any global epidemic, not just HIV/AIDS, represents an extremely serious threat, to the people who live in the Caribbean.

Yes, Americans should be concerned, but not just Americans. This concerns everyone.

The question becomes one of whether or not, if or when, there is an epidemic of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean, is it possible to contain the spread of HIV/AIDS within that area or to prevent it from spreading from there, to other people outside of that particular region?

One might ask if there is any kind of legislation in effect in the Caribbean, that would allow HIV/AIDS to be contained? Or, is there any legislation in North America, Mexico, Central America or South America, that would protect the population in these countries from receiving an influx of highly contagious people, who may already have been infected with HIV/AIDS? If not, why not?

There are some serious concerns here. Many of these are education, health education and HIV/AIDS education related issues.

Education, health education and HIV/AIDS education for the people who are currently living in the Caribbean, is important. But, this is also true with respect to education, health education and HIV/AIDS education, on a larger or global scale.

People can be taught to prevent and to contain the spread of illness, at least to some degree, through a higher standard of education, health education and HIV/AIDS education.

The economy in the Caribbean, does involve tourism to a large degree. Because of the sun, the sand and the surf, it is highly unrealistic to assume that tourism will decrease to any extent, in the Caribbean area. It is realistic to assume that a high influx of HIV/AIDS into the Caribbean or the sudden spreading of this disease in the Caribbean population, could put the tourism industry in serious jeopardy. The economy of the region would suffer tremendously, increasing the poverty level of the people, as well as the likelihood of an HIV/AIDS epidemic spreading further.

It is in everyone's best interest in the Caribbean and on a global level, not just Americans, to attempt to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS into the Caribbean and from the Caribbean, into other neighboring countries. Each person, family, community and country has a degree of responsibility, which must be assumed both now and in the future.