National Latino AIDS Awareness Day is Tomorrow
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control is reminding the public that tomorrow is National Latino AIDS Awareness Day, which seeks to increase awareness of the disproportionate effects of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in the Hispanic/Latino population living in the United States.
According to CDC, in 2006, Hispanics accounted for approximately 14.8 percent of the U.S. population but 18.4 percent of persons who received an HIV/AIDS diagnosis.
For 2006, estimates of HIV incidence show that blacks had the highest rate of new infections (83.8 per 100,000 population), followed by Hispanics (29.4 per 100,000) and non-Hispanic whites (11.5 per 100,000).
Male-to-male sexual contact accounted for approximately half of the new infections among all Hispanics and approximately 72 percent of new infections among Hispanic males.
NLAAD also is a day for encouraging increased HIV testing. According to CDC, results from the national HIV counseling and testing database show that percentages of positive HIV tests representing new diagnoses were 1.5 times as high among Hispanics as among non-Hispanic whites. In addition, modes of HIV infection among Hispanics have been determined to vary by place of birth, calling for appropriate prevention activities in the diverse Hispanic communities in the United States.
For more information about NLAAD, go to http://nlaad.org. Information about CDC activities and resources supporting NLAAD is available at www.cdc.gov/hiv/Hispanics.