Haiti and the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Excerpt

To the editor: As an outcome of the zealous effort to elucidate factors in the causation of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, frustration has given way to speculation about the health and habits of its victims. Haitians are the target of such conjecture by Leonidas and Hyppolite (1). Although a recent, albeit brief, opportunity to observe illness in rural Haiti hardly qualifies us as experts on indigenous Haitian diseases, we learned enough to be certain that the authors' speculations are not applicable to patients living in small villages. Alcoholism is extremely unusual and almost nonexistent among rural people. The use of