Wyclef Blasts Report Suggesting AIDS Entered the U.S. Through Haiti

In a statement released today through his Yele Haiti foundation, Wyclef Jean slammed a recent study that suggests the AIDS virus made its way into the U.S. through his native country of Haiti. “World AIDS Day (December 1) is an opportunity to evoke the progress and challenges that Haiti must confront in order to fight this epidemic, but also the recent news that unjustly targeted our country and showed serious prejudice,” Clef said in the statement. According to the Associated Press, Clef’s remarks were in response to a study released by Michael Worobey, an assistant professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, back in October. Worobey’s report called Haiti the “stepping stone” for the deadly virus as it made its way from the African continent into North America. Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, has been particularly hard hit by HIV and AIDS. “AIDS is a worldwide illness that does not discriminate. Making Haiti the scapegoat only gets in the way of world progress in AIDS research,” Clef reasoned. The former Fugees frontman was appointed as Haiti’s goodwill ambassador by the country’s president Rene Preval earlier this year. -xxl