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Cuba began testing for HIV in 1986,
and the first people diagnosed - soldiers who had been to Africa - were locked
in the nation’s Naval Hospital. As more cases were diagnosed and more civilians
tested positive, Cuba opened sanitariums to thwart sexual transmission and offer
comfort to the dying.
Military doctors ran the facilities;
soldiers stood guard; and all patients’ home visits were supervised. Inmates
received food, medical care, and their old salaries. Theater groups and art
classes formed. Gay men could live together, unlike outside.
The sanitariums increased in number
to 14. Though criticized as “pretty prisons” by the first AIDS director at the
World Health Organization, Dr. Jonathan Mann, the network curbed Cuba’s early
epidemic. Through 1990, fewer than 150 new cases were diagnosed annually.
However, the lock-up policy meant
some Cubans avoided testing while a few, usually teens estranged from their
families, intentionally got infected to get in. The island’s 11 unique
recombinant HIV strains were the result of intra-sanitarium sex, researchers
believe.
In 1989, new network Director Dr.
Jorge Perez Avila slowly began easing restrictions. Trusted patients could
visit home unattended. In 1993, the gates were opened and outpatient care grew
normal. At first, 40 percent of patients chose to stay: With the Soviet Union’s
collapse, Cuba’s economy “was destroyed,” said Perez, who is now Cuba’s top
AIDS physician.
Today Cuba has three sanitariums,
two of which were visited recently by a reporter. Santiago de las Vegas, about
a 30-minute drive from Havana, has 200 patients. Sancti Spiritus in central
Cuba has 21.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
