Heroes of HIV: HIV In The Carribean

15 November 2007

Pulitzer Center-sponsored journalist Antigone Barton of the Palm Beach Post examines the AIDS epidemic in the Carribean, as she travels through Haiti and the Dominican Republic, as well as Palm Beach County. With HIV rates second only to those of sub-Saharan Africa, Caribbean islands that conjure visions of sun, sand, and tourism now highlight the interplay between poverty and the epidemic in this hemisphere. And less than two hours from South Florida shores, the island of Hispaniola has struggled with the highest HIV rates in the Caribbean since the early 1980s.

Twenty-five years after the AIDS epidemic was given a name, it is a plague with tangled ties between the wealthiest and the poorest countries in the hemisphere. In a three-part series over three consecutive Sundays, Palm Beach Post reporter Antigone Barton examines some of those ties, in the Dominican Republic, in Haiti and in Palm Beach County.

The series was made possible through the support of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting in association with the Palm Beach Post. The Center funded Antigone Barton's travel costs and also commissioned the video documentaries and interactive web materials that complement her articles.

Barton received additional support from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, as a Pulitzer Center World Affairs Journalism Fellow at the International Center for Journalists. She also received a National Press Foundation fellowship to attend the International AIDS Conference this past July in Sydney, Australia.

The Pulitzer Center's journalism work in the Caribbean is supported by the MAC AIDS Fund. Its Global Gateway education outreach is supported by the Educational Foundation of America (EFA).

To read published articles resulting from Barton's reporting in the Carribean, click here.

To access the Heroes of HIV interactive website, click here.