HIV/AIDS is still around

A few days ago, we marked World AIDS Day and many people remembered loved ones who lost the battle in the past. But HIV/AIDS infection as a global crisis is not just a memory: each year, there are 50,000 new infections in the U.S. and 3 million around the world. We are very far from having ended this scourge. In the United States, 1.2 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. Of them, approximately a quarter million are Latinos. This group accounts for one of every five new infections, a rate three times higher than that of whites. In reality, racial or ethnic minorities make up more than 70% of new cases of HIV infection. Recent studies relate the high rates of imprisonment of African-Americans and Latinos as partly responsible for the infections, as well as the lack of education regarding the disease and the taboos that abound in these communities.

Although with proper treatment, it is possible to live many years with HIV without developing AIDS, experts point out that minorities tend to be diagnosed later than other groups and usually do not have the resources or health insurance to cover antiretroviral therapy, the drug cocktail used to suppress the virus. It is essential to continue supporting education and diagnosis programs, as well as treatment programs. It is also particularly important to document what this disease costs these communities in terms of productivity, so that the authorities can allocate public funds where they are needed most. Unfortunately, crucial anti-AIDS programs would be included in the spending cuts to be implemented as part of the fiscal cliff—a concrete example that the decisions made are not abstract, but very real, and will jeopardize many lives.

HIV and AIDS are controllable and are no longer a death sentence. But we cannot let our guard down, especially in the Latino community.