For immigrants in the Dominican Republic, access to HIV treatment is difficult to obtain

Massiel Ruiz, the country program manager for AIDS Healthcare Foundation Dominican Republic, gives reporters a tour of the AHF facility on March 8, 2023, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Ruiz oversees AHF programming for the Dominican Republic and recently opened the clinic in Santo Domingo. (Photo by Albert Serna Jr./Cronkite Borderlands Project)

By Albert Serna Jr./Cronkite Borderlands Project Jan. 8, 2024

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – AIDS Healthcare Foundation works to provide treatment for people living in the Dominican Republic. But for Haitian migrants, access to care can be difficult.

Ep 1: HIV care and treatment in the Dominican Republic.

(Audio by Albert Serna Jr./Cronkite Borderlands Project)

Access to care and treatment for HIV is not always difficult to get – the AIDS Healthcare Foundation provides treatment to anyone who needs it. But resources for the Dominican arm of the agency are not always plentiful and a small team works to provide care across the country.

Stanley Payoute, a doctor with AIDS Healthcare Foundation Haiti, drives across the Haitian border into the Dominican Republic to meet with Cronkite News reporters on March 5, 2023, in Dajabon, Dominican Republic. Payoute drove with two patients and a nurse from his clinic in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. (Photo by Albert Serna Jr./Cronkite Borderlands Project)

Ep 2: Resources for people living with HIV in Haiti may be difficult to come by.

(Audio by Albert Serna Jr./Cronkite Borderlands Project)

In what has been described as one of the “poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere” by the Council on Foreign Relations, there are resources readily available for people living with HIV. Even so, what people ask for and need isn’t always available to them due to lack of funding and lack of communication between different agencies.

Health care worker and HIV tester, Katherine, takes a blood sample from a patient to test for the virus on March 6, 2023, in La Romana, Dominican Republic. Katherine tested 29 residents of the Batey La Gina, none of whom tested positive for HIV. (Photo by Albert Serna Jr./Cronkite Borderlands Project)

Ep 3: HIV testing and treatment for Haitian migrants in Dominican bateys.

(Audio by Albert Serna Jr./Cronkite Borderlands Project)

In some of the country’s poorest communities, Light a Candle Foundation dispatches mobile clinics to test for and treat HIV. Community buy-in is important, but a stigma and lack of understanding about the spread of the virus can keep the community from testing.