Hearing Focuses on Spread of AIDS Among Latinos : Health: Cases continue to rise sharply in the county. Speakers blame ignorance, shame and religious bias for the increase.

Rosa, a Latina mother of six, is infected with the AIDS virus. Figuring AIDS was a gay male disease, she never thought to be tested until her husband was dying of AIDS.

Even today, she does not know how her husband got AIDS. “I ask him a lot of times why he has AIDS. He said, ‘Don’t ask me. You don’t want to know,’ ” said Rosa, who asked that her real name not be used to protect her family.

Rosa testified with more than two dozen health care workers and AIDS activists Wednesday at a hearing in Downtown Los Angeles on the spread of AIDS in the Latino community.

One-third of all 1992 county AIDS cases were among Latinos, up from 15% in 1988. Statistics released by the HIV/AIDS clinic at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center showed that 41% of the new patients at the clinic in the last several months were Latinos.

Other studies show that Latinas account for a disproportionately high share of the women who have AIDS or the human immunodeficiency virus, and many are passing the virus along to their babies during pregnancy. Forty-one percent of the children who have AIDS in the county are Latinos.

Health officials believe those statistics are only the tip of the iceberg. Latinos, more than other groups, seek treatment only in the late stages of the disease, officials said.

“The statistics show increases (among Latinos) across California. There is every reason to believe that those cases will only increase unless we do something,” said state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), who was the hearing’s chairman.

Experts said Rosa’s story was all too familiar in the Latino community. They said ignorance, denial, shame and cultural and religious biases all contribute heavily to the spread of AIDS. Another factor is that undocumented immigrants fear capture and deportation.

Roland Palencia of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation said that of 20,000 AIDS deaths in Los Angeles County since the epidemic began, 4,500 have been Latinos, but that the fact has failed to register in the community.

Palencia said community attitudes are so strong against gay sex that people admitted it only on great risk. “There is a lot of homophobia within the Latino community. People don’t want to expose themselves to that,” he said.

Religious attitudes also contribute, especially the Roman Catholic Church’s position against the use of condoms.

One Latina told the panel of 15 elected officials and civic leaders: “I am Catholic, but as far as condoms are concerned, I’d rather have my children healthy than religious.”

Another Latina, a mother of four who tested HIV-positive two years ago, said it never occurred to her that she was at risk for AIDS. “I never thought I would be the one to have this,” said the woman, who identified herself only as Carmen because she said she was undocumented. She said her immigration status was hurting her in getting medicine she needs.

Elliot Johnson, administrator of the HIV/AIDS clinic at County-USC, said: “(Each month) we are seeing sicker people. Many come in with full-blown AIDS and we are the first time many of them have seen a doctor. It appears to us the word is not getting out . . . (or) people are not listening.”

Part of the problem is that warnings often are in English, rather than Spanish, AIDS workers said. They also said the Latino community was hurt by not having an easily recognizable figure such as Elizabeth Taylor or Magic Johnson to carry the safe-sex message.

Rosa, who wept throughout the hearing, said she is shunned by some family and her parish priest, has lost her house, and fears death.

She said nothing in her life prepared her for living with the AIDS virus. “People don’t get close to you, like when you have cancer. You have to hide. It is hard for the priest to talk about this. A lot of people think that AIDS is a sin, that it’s about sex,” she said.