The Zombie Curse - 9780309097369

Dr. Art Fournier meets his first AIDS patient on an autumn afternoon in 1979. Of course, neither Fournier nor his colleagues at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital fully understand the ominous nature of what they are seeing. They are simply confounded by the fact that the patient fails to respond to treatment and, ultimately, dies. Over the next several months, scores of additional patients present themselves with similar symptoms - and meet the same fate. Beyond the medical similarities, there is another bond that groups these patients together: they are all Haitian immigrants. The zombie curse has descended on south Florida.
As the AIDS epidemic unfolds around the world, Fournier embarks on his own journey of redemption and healing. A witness to the chaos, confusion, and blame that would become associated with this baffling disease, he is deeply affected by the epidemic's impact on Miami's Haitian community. While he vainly treats physical symptoms and prescribes medications that seem to have little effect, he slowly recognizes the cycle of poverty and disease that is contributing to the disease's true devastation. Ill prepared for the death and misery, both he and the world's health community are confused and frustrated by this mysterious illness. But it is the catastrophic spiritual toll, for which medical science has no remedy, that motivates Fournier to take his first trip to Haiti, where AIDS and a host of other ailments are crippling its population.
This memoir of a dedicated doctor battling the Haitian AIDS epidemic does more than chronicle a horrible disease. As we follow Fournier to Haiti where he searches for ways to help his patients - not simply by addressing the physical symptoms, but also by tackling the stereotyping and blame heaped on both the victims and even the doctors that tend to them - it becomes clear that the pathway to salvation lies as much in the collective depths of our hearts and souls as it does in medical science.