In Haiti, there is more HIV infection, there is more AIDS than in any other country in the western hemisphere.
Paul began treating AIDS in Haiti in precisely the way that he and Jim treated tuberculosis, that is, using community health workers, so that patients who are in need of the antiretroviral drugs get them, not as prescriptions or as bottles of pills, but rather from community health workers who come see that they're treated and, as a result, the treatment results are no different than those that we see here in Boston. Indeed, in some instances better than we see with some people in Boston, the poorest people, are the people who do less well.
And, in fact, the approach that has been taken, the use of community health workers has been replicated here in Boston in Boston's inner city in a program that's called PACT. A program that is directed by one of the doctors trained by Paul and Jim, Heidi Behforouz, a remarkable physician who has identified patients here with AIDS, patients who were being hospitalized at the Brigham once a month or once every two months with infections of one kind of another at enormous cost to society, since these patients obviously are not able to pay their bills. Heidi has trained community health workers in Boston's inner city and these health workers call on the patients, see that they get their drugs, and so many of these people have now been restored to full function in our community. This approach, incidentally, the use of community health workers, is one that many people feel has enormous potential for dealing with chronic illness of all sorts in this country as well as elsewhere.
