AIDS Among Latinos on Rise (14% of the U.S. population, they're 22% of new HIV and AIDS diagnoses)

Washington Post ^ | July 23, 2008 | Ceci Connolly

[neverdem]

Hispanics in U.S. Face Unique Obstacles to Diagnosis, Treatment

SAN YSIDRO, Calif. -- AIDS rates in the nation's Latino community are increasing and, with little notice, have reached what experts are calling a simmering public health crisis.

Though Hispanics make up about 14 percent of the U.S. population, they represented 22 percent of new HIV and AIDS diagnoses tallied by federal officials in 2006. According to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Hispanics in the District have the highest rate of new AIDS cases in the country.

So far, the toll of AIDS in the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority population has mostly been overshadowed by the epidemic among African Americans and gay white men. Yet in major U.S. cities, as many as 1 in 4 gay Hispanic men has HIV, a rate on par with sub-Saharan Africa.

Blacks still have the highest HIV rates in the country, but language difficulties, cultural barriers and, in many cases, issues of legal status make the threat in the Hispanic community unique. For those who arrived illegally, in particular, fear of arrest and deportation presents a daunting obstacle to seeking diagnosis and treatment.

"Officials need to stop downplaying or ignoring what's happening among Latinos," said Oscar De La O, president of Bienestar, a Latino service organization. "We are at the center of the storm."

Even with the United States embroiled in a fierce debate over immigration policy, the problem of AIDS in Latinos had received scant attention from political and public health officials. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where only two of 17 approved HIV programs target Hispanic Americans, officials have added Spanish-language hotlines, confidential testing sites and other initiatives aimed at filling the gap.

"Hispanics are overrepresented in this epidemic, and we need to target our efforts to...,"

[Gaffer]

Maybe we can reduce this crisis if we send illegals back to their own countries....just another ploy for federal $$ based on a minority group.....(actually a majority amongst the minority groups.)

[teawithmisswilliams]

"For those who arrived illegally, in particular, fear of arrest and deportation presents a daunting obstacle to seeking diagnosis and treatment."

And so? The article assumes it is therefore the US taxpayers' obligation to fix this problem. We actually don't want them here, hard as that is for the elites to admit.

[Bigg Red]

The article assumes it is therefore the US taxpayers’ obligation to fix this problem.

&&
Well, yeah. You and I are just too unenlightened to understand.

The illegals are just doin’ the STDs that Americans won’t do.

I would not be surprised to find out that the Mexican government is actually helping all of their sick people to jump the border.

[sickoflibs]

Is this story a joke? He jumped the Mexican border to be accepted by American gays not being acceped at home, and was , and got aids? Does the writer have any idea what the average american thinks of this? So do we need to give free condoms and sex ed at the illegal crossings?

[neverdem]

Is this story a joke?

If it's a joke, it's on the frontpage.

[PGR88]

If I were Mexican, and had HIV, I sure has heck would try to get over to San Diego or LA for some free meds. Not much available in Mexico, I imagine.

Wonder if that skews the figures?

[sheana]

“For those who arrived illegally, in particular, fear of arrest and deportation presents a daunting obstacle to seeking diagnosis and treatment.”

I don’t want them treated, I want their a$$e$ kicked back across the border where they become Mexico’s problem.......again.

[neverdem]

at least the illegals aren't bringing leprosy across the border.

In the past, the deformities caused by leprosy led to ostracism, and people with the disease often were isolated in institutions or colonies. In some countries, this practice is still common. Isolation, however, is unnecessary. Leprosy is contagious only in the untreated lepromatous form, and even then the disease is not easily transmitted to others. Once treatment has begun, the disease cannot be passed to others. Furthermore, most people are naturally immune to leprosy, and only those who have close, long-term contact with an infected person are at risk of developing an infection.