Announcements: National Latino AIDS Awareness Day --- October 15, 2011

 

Announcements: National Latino AIDS Awareness Day --- October 15, 2011

Weekly

October 15, 2011, is National Latino AIDS Awareness Day, which seeks to raise awareness of the disproportionate impact of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) on the Hispanic/Latino population in the United States. Estimates of HIV incidence for 2009 indicate that Hispanics had a rate of 26.4 per 100,000 population, compared with 9.1 for whites (1). Two of the three goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy are to reduce HIV incidence and to reduce HIV-related disparities (2).
National Latino AIDS Awareness Day is an opportunity to encourage increased HIV prevention activities, such as HIV testing, for Hispanics. In 2009, male-to-male sexual contact was associated with an estimated 64% of new infections among all Hispanics and an estimated 81% of new infections among Hispanic males (1). Among Hispanic females, high-risk heterosexual contact was associated with an estimated 85% of new infections (3). Data from CDC's National HIV Behavioral Surveillance System show that, in 2008, 46% of HIV-positive Hispanic men who have sex with men did not know they were infected compared with 26% of HIV-positive non-Hispanic white men who have sex with men (3).
Additional information about National Latino AIDS Awareness Day is available at http://www.cdc.gov/features/latinoaidsawareness and at http://www.nlaad.org. Information about CDC activities and HIV resources is available at http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/hispanics.

References

1. Prejean J, Song R, Hernandez A, et al. Estimated HIV incidence in the United States, 2006--2009. PLoS ONE 2011;6(8):e17502.
2. White House Office of National AIDS Policy. National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States. Washington, DC: White House Office of National AIDS Policy; 2010. Available at http://www.aids.gov/federal-resources/policies/national-hiv-aids-strategy/nhas.pdf . Accessed October 5, 2011.
3. CDC. Prevalence and awareness of HIV infection among men who have sex with men---21 cities, United States, 2008. MMWR 2010;59:1201--7.

Announcements: National Latino AIDS Awareness Day --- October 15, 2011October 14, 2011 / 60(40);1394