Le sida aux frontières caribéennes de l’Europe. Souvenirs d’une épidémie dans des terres d’exception
Abstract
This paper presents some fieldwork narratives from three French Caribbean territories (Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Martinique) and Haiti. From 2002 to 2006, the author conducted research about people living with HIV/AIDS and their social life conditions. This study questioned the different types of care, and the conditions of their long-term settlement. The focus was made on diagnosis and counseling, and the way people could become long-term HIV patients in hospital services. Multicultural caregivers and physicians had to care for various people according to their origins, cultures, languages, socio-economical levels and abilities, and were supposed to provide individual attention. The study also questioned the ethical and deontological aspects of this fieldwork. Working in an exceptional natural and sociological context among people living in difficult living conditions whose caregivers developed strong commitment or even weaknesses, was an experience that challenged the principles of anthropology in a post-colonial area.
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