From 1999 to 2001, new HIV infection rates among Latinos increased by 26% in the 29 states that report HIV cases, surpassing new infections for all other populations. What is even more disconcerting is that these data do not include infections from Latino population strongholds such as Texas and California, wherein Latino AIDS cases have surpassed those of African Americans since 1995.

In an effort to better understand HIV risk and access to prevention information among Latinos, the National Council of La Raza, in collaboration with the Office of Minority Health, has recently completed a national HIV/AIDS needs assessment of 14 sites across the United States, including Puerto Rico. Focus groups were conducted with at-risk and high-risk Latinos, and HIV positive Latinos were interviewed. A total of 322 participants from Miami, San Juan, New York City, Paterson, Hartford, Boston, Harlingen, San Antonio, Los Angeles, the District of Columbia, San Ysidro, El Paso, Hattiesburg, and Durham were included in the study.

Due to lack of prevention information and education, combined with socioeconomic hardship and lack of health care, Latinos have been found to be at grave risk for HIV infection. Latinos have known little of HIV, and have perceived that sex workers, homosexuals, and injection drug users were the only populations at risk for HIV infection. Latina women are most likely to be infected through heterosexual contact, most often with their husbands or long-term male partners. Few Latinos, with the exception of those in New York City, can recall having been exposed to any HIV prevention messages in Spanish. There is a grave lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate prevention information for Latinos. NCLR, in collaboration with community-based researchers at California State University Long Beach, are working to solve this problem through the creation of appropriate strategies targeting the Latino community.