HIV/AIDS in Barbados

Freedom from disease is closely related to freedom from ignorance and both lead to freedom from hunger. All three conditions – disease, ignorance and hunger – are the hallmarks of poverty, the alleviation and eradication of which have become ‘big questions’ on the global development agenda. Unlike other infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS does not respect social barriers. It affects rich and poor alike. This epidemic reduces life expectancy; increases child mortality, leaves large numbers of children without adult care and places intolerable strains on health care systems. Nevertheless, poverty facilitates the transmission of HIV and its more rapid development into full-blown AIDS. In Barbados one overarching issue is that poverty accentuates the vulnerability of the poor to HIV infection in a variety of interacting and accumulating ways. The urgency of responding to immediate short-term survival or satisfaction needs overrides concern about protecting conditions that lie several years in the future.