the french acronym means "the haitian group for the study of kaposi sarcomand opportunistic infections," as the term aids had not yet been coined. >> people were dying within six mont to a year. so it was scary because nobody knew how it was transmitted. and we knew that we were on something big. >> reporter: aids was so prevalent in haiti that a myth arose that being haitian was a risk factor for the disease. bupape and his team produced groundbreaking studies that helped disprove the widespread notion that haitians were especially susceptible to ai. and early on, haiti's ministry of health closed all commercial blood banking after pape's team .onnected blood transfusions in haiti to infection >> and i think this is tlehe mot simportant measure we took early on to control the aids oridemic. >> rr: in the early 2000s, gheso began providing life-saving antiretroviral medicine to haitians for free, with support from the global fund and the u.s. president's emergency plan for aids rief, or pepfar. today, the world health organization implements eskio's treatment guidelines for h.i.v. in l