Lack of Action to Combat AIDS in Latino Community Criticized

Noting that Latinos make up 7% of the U.S. population--but more than 14% of the country’s 54,000 AIDS cases--participants at a nationwide health conference in Los Angeles criticized both the Latino and Anglo communities for failing to address the problem.

“Gay Latino men for the most part are still in denial of their sexuality and of the disease,” J. Loren Laureano, founder of Tejanos (Texans) With AIDS, said Thursday at a symposium press conference. “And white gay groups, which receive most of the public money to provide AIDS education, have not provided enough minority outreach programs.”

Because of the strong family ties among many Latinos, Laureano said, gay men have been especially reluctant to come out of the closet, fearing abandonment by family and friends. Because there has not been a grass-roots Latino gay political movement, the required clout to get AIDS money for education and medical care has not been forthcoming, he said.

Other conference participants, including health experts from the federal Centers for Disease Control and 15 state and local health departments, echoed those concerns, noting that while AIDS was initially viewed as only a disease of white male homosexuals, it is increasingly becoming the plague of the urban poor minorities.

Dr. Juan Ramos, conference chairman and deputy director of prevention for the National Institute of Mental Health, noted that while some strides have been made in addressing the problem of minorities with AIDS in the past year, “there is still a great sense of urgency.”

Community Guidelines Sought

The conference, sponsored in part by Aids Project Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Health Department and the U.S. Public Health Service, hopes to develop guidelines to help communities provide better medical and mental health programs for minority AIDS patients and expand AIDS education outreach programs.

Ramos noted that many gay and bisexual Latino men marry because of cultural pressures and spread AIDS to spouses and children.

Nationwide, almost 20% of all women who have AIDS are Latina. Among the 852 pediatric AIDS cases, 194 are Latino children, CDC figures show. In Los Angeles County, 674 of 4,354 AIDS cases, or about 15%, are Latino.

Because many are poor, less educated and do not speak English, they do not have access to mainstream AIDS information or do not seek medical help, Ramos said. As a result, many who carry the virus do not know they are infected. He noted that this is reflected in the average survival time of AIDS patients.

Whites live an average of 22 months after diagnosis, nonwhites an average of five months, according to federal figures.

Even though AIDS education material is now more widely available in most communities, it often does not reach those in the Latino community, conference leaders said. Most such information is written in English. And even the items written in Spanish do not often reach those who need it.

In recent months there have been some efforts to combat AIDS among minorities. For example, federal health officials have supplied advertisements on AIDS to about 600 Spanish language radio stations. AIDS information brochures, many written in Spanish, are being sent to millions of households.

In Southern California, the Latino caseload for AIDS Project Los Angeles has increased 52% in the past year, from 101 to 154. The social and health group also funds a Spanish language hot line and has published several Spanish language brochures.

The conference, being held at the Bonaventure Hotel, will conclude today. The symposium’s policy recommendations will be available for health planners nationwide later this summer.