AIDS & Latinos

Despite the fact that immigration laws and policies are frequently at the forefront of political agendas, there has been very little, if any, mention about this growing AIDS epidemic amongst Latinos. Even with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the seventeen official HIV programs, only two of them attempt to target the Hispanic population. This has recently changed as public health officials, realizing the new epidemic, have attempted to make amends by instilling hotlines that are bilingual and private HIV testing sites for Latinos. An epidemiologist for the CDC, Kenneth Dominguez, states, “Hispanics are overrepresented in this epidemic, and we need to target our efforts to them.” Frank Galvan who represents the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science located in Los Angeles states, “You combine the economic pressures, loneliness and immigration worries, and it pushes these individuals to be a hidden population.” He feels that if the United States does nothing to alleviate this growing epidemic that repercussions will be felt amongst other communities and that “it will continue to spread to other populations.”

In fact, the exact statistics of HIV amongst Hispanics is still unknown since the released figures only account for 33 of the 50 states and Puerto Rico. These figures do not even include California which has a very large 37% Hispanic population. In August 2008 at the International AIDS Conference being held in Mexico City, one of the main topics of discussion will be how migration affects the chances of one getting exposed and infected with HIV. Kenneth Dominguez explains, “Migrants tend to be lonely, separated from their family or partners. They do not have health insurance. They may turn to drugs or alcohol. All of these put a migrant at higher risk.”