Our national and local community is ignoring the omnipresent disparity that arises from the HIV epidemic, both abroad and in the domestic sphere.

That HIV is the leading cause of death among 15- to 44-year-olds living in the Caribbean prompted the efforts of Palm Beach Post reporter Antigone Barton to integrate her research and writings on the HIV epidemic in an in-depth review, “Heroes of HIV: HIV in the Caribbean,” by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, an international resource for “under-reported,” “mis-reported” or un-reported issues.” We should use this report to gain insight into how HIV is affecting both the international and national community — in particular, how it disproportionately affects black populations.

Barton’s report documents an encouraging rise in treatment and recovery rates in Haiti and the Dominican Republic — countries that together account for nearly three-quarters of an estimated 250,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean. However, it also cites the tragic fate of the 88 percent of residents in 2005 who did not receive necessary antiretroviral therapy, the presence of 15,000 children living with AIDS in the region and the high exposure to the disease in Haitian correctional facilities.

Perhaps the American conscience cannot comprehend completely the severity of disease that can so alter a nation. Whereas the HIV virus is the leading cause of death among the aforementioned age group in Hispaniola, it accounts for less than 4 percent of U.S. deaths among 15- to 44-year-olds.

Barton, however, shows us how our ignorance leads to reckless and costly neglect. In our nation of unmitigated recidivism and irresponsible correctional programs, perhaps it is not so striking that the $55 million in U.S. funds for Haitian agencies, allotted through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, failed to address the medieval procedures of Haiti’s penitentiaries in which there are rampant cases of sexual abuse and exposure to needles. Barton recalls the tour given to “60 Minutes” reporter Mike Wallace by former Justice Department staffer Maurice Geiger. This interview points to the lack of change behind the walls of the over-populated cell blocks, five years after a negligent reform program of the U.S. Agency for International Development had taken place. This derelict agency had even hired a “disbarred attorney with a record of felonies to run the program.”

Washington, D.C., a city where HIV does account for an overwhelming rate of fatalities among our age group and which has the nation’s highest infection rates among blacks, is also the city where the policy for foreign aid is set, perhaps the tragic fate of Haiti and the Caribbean, the disparity abroad should not come as a surprise.

As Georgetown students join the Washington debate over birth control and social practices, they fail to address the issues that lie at the root of disparity and affliction. And as they do, new cases of the disease far outpace treatment, and the need for a vaccination has never been more pressing.

We need more leaders to focus on this issue. They should not be dissuaded by fear of political backlash. Barton reported on one such leader this past November on the bus tour of Bishop Lewis White, urging education and prevention of HIV/AIDS in Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast, Fla. Any political backlash of the controversial advertisement painted on the side of the bus — “free condoms here” — might be cautioned by the complimentary cries of disparity in letters lining the vehicle, including the black community’s contribution of 65 percent of all cases of HIV/AIDS in a community that is only 15 percent black. The Bishop’s calling raises a noteworthy cause that transcends politics.

In conjunction with efforts of the Pulitzer Center, my student group will be displaying an array of images and information on Healy Lawn today to foster awareness of these crucial issues that cut across cultural boundaries.

This spring break, before the drowsy spell of that fourth cocktail prompts an 11 a.m. snooze on the beach, sit up, put on some sunscreen and reflect on what Barton has shown us. Peer inland to the looming affliction that was never really that distant, and think about the dramatic impact it has on society.

Eric Bodzin is a sophomore in the College and, through the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, is working on an advocacy campaign for AIDS in the Caribbean.