The Role Of Disease In The Hispanic Community

A major difference in deaths among males is the percentage of death from HIV. Hispanic males are three times more likely to die from HIV than white males. A reason for this may be that Hispanics are less likely to have access to health care services and unable to receive the proper treatment, resulting in an untreated problem causing death. The CDC states that Hispanic males are more likely to contract HIV from having sexual intercourse with another man and is the primary source from contracting the disease. ( Fact Sheet HIV among Latinos, 2017).

Department of Health & Human Services the group of people who are disproportionately affected by HIV are African Americans Gay and Bisexual Men. From 2005 to 2014, diagnoses increased 22% among all African Americans Gay and bisexual men and 87% among young African Americans and gay and bisexual men. By the end of 2013, an approximation of 493,543 gay and bisexual men were living with the HIV infection. Of those, 152,303 (31%) were African American, 210,299 (43%) were white, and 104,529 (21%) were Hispanic/Latino (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2016). Socioeconomic factors limited access to quality health care, lower income and educational levels, and higher rates of unemployment and incarceration may place some African American gay and bisexual men at higher risk for HIV than men of some other races/ethnicities.

SLIDE 1: So why are we targeting low-income black and Hispanic adolescent females you may ask? They are at higher risk, than other ethnicities, for acquiring an STD and/or experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. Increased utilization of dual contraception is of great importance in these communities. Adolescent females in general are less likely to use dual forms of protection from STD’s and unplanned pregnancy. Young women, due to their anatomy tend to be more susceptible to STD’s than are young men. Black and Hispanic females are 4.9x and 2.1x, respectively, more likely to contract chlamydia (which is a common STD) than their white counterparts. When it comes to pregnancy 3 in 10 adolescent females will become pregnant before the age of 20, amongst black and Hispanic young women this figure jumps to 5 in 10. Black and Hispanics teens are more likely to be living in poverty than are other ethnicities and data has shown that teen pregnancy increases proportionally as socioeconomic status declines as does rate of STD contraction.

Such differences place Latino women at a disadvantage as compared to both groups in terms of current prevention and treatment initiatives. The Latino experience of HIV/AIDS is rooted not only in gender, but also in the socioeconomic, sociocultural, and political contexts of the women’s lives. The purpose of this study is to explore Latino women’s narratives of living with HIV/AIDS. The central questions guiding this study were: (a) what issues contribute to Latino women becoming infected with HIV? (b) What factors, or confluence of factors, play a role in Latino women living with HIV/AIDS? (c) What does being infected with HIV/AIDS mean to Latino women? and (d) How do Latino women make sense of being infected with HIV/AIDS within the broader context of their

Outcome: Contraceptive use among Hispanic teens is relatively low and almost one-half of sexually active teens do not use a condom, putting them at risk for sexually transmitted infections in addition to pregnancy. (Child Trends,

HIV has affected people all across the world. HIV comes with physical and mental symptoms. The body symptoms include skin flaking off, being dry, skin peeling off (Saliba 23) , fingernails falling off (32), and weight loss (14). Mentally it is hard to sleep, people become weak, and are tired all the time (23). People all across the world are infected with this disease, and the problem with this is the fact that most do not even know they have it. The most people who are infected each year are African Americans, gays, or bisexuals. 10,315 African Americans were infected in 2015. The U.S.A. has estimated about 1.1 million are infected with the disease. Equally to about 12,333 deaths happened in 2014 from AIDS related diseases, and 6,721 deaths from AIDS directly. Although there are a large amount of people getting infected, on the other hand eighteen percent of the population with HIV is declining since 2008-2014 (“U.S. Statistics”). In the world about 33.2 million people worldwide have HIV, with 22.5 million people in sub Saharan Africa are living with this condition, one out of nine people who live in South America have HIV or AIDS (Saliba 8).

Hispanic and Latinos have been the nation's fastest-growing ethnic population in the past several decades. HIV diagnoses in Latino and Hispanic populations have been rising in the past decades. In 2011, Latinos and Hispanics represented 17% of the total population in the US, but however, they also accounted for 21% of the estimated adults diagnosed with HIV infections in the United States. In fact, in 1985, Latinos were at 15% of all diagnosed HIV cases and in 2010, it increased to 22% in the U.S. National Latinos AIDS Awareness day is observed each year to increase awareness of that impact of HIV on the Hispanic and Latino population. The recent slogan—To End ADS Commit Act—was chosen to mobilize Hispanics to commit ending HIV in their communities.

Since I am a Hispanic/Latino I will be discussing the rates and risk factors of HIV specifically associated with the prevalence of HIV with Hispanics. First, the prevalence of Hispanics having HIV is quite larger in comparison to other races. In the United States of America, the estimated HIV infection rate amid Hispanics in 2010 was more than 3 times as high as that of the white race, being over 21% of all new HIV infections across the country. Two major socioeconomic factors that might have caused the prevalence of HIV amongst the Hispanic population are poverty and language barriers. The numbers can go on. In 2010, a whopping 87% of Hispanic men had new HIV infections among Hispanics in the United States. In regards to Hispanic homosexual men, 67% of them were estimated to have new HIV infections in 2010. Furthermore, the estimated rates for Hispanic women infected with new HIV infections was

HIV/AIDS is a disease with social, psychological and physiological consequences for those impacted by the illness. The impact of HIV and AIDS among African American women has been devastating. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC, 2010) reports that black women represent 29% of the estimated new HIV infections among all adult and adolescent African Americans and HIV/AIDS is the third leading cause of death for black women ages 25?44. Several

In the Hispanic/Latino culture health care is most commonly sought after when symptoms appear, and in may cases only when those symptoms cause the individual’s incapacitation. Working through discomfort is considered the norm, dwelling on discomfort or mild pain is seen as weakness and seeking medical attention when not ill, such as preventive care, is almost unheard of, unless it is required by one’s employer. Culturally engaging in premarital sex is frowned upon for girls, though not so much for males, abstinence may be the only birth control ever discussed at home, for fear of implying consent. This significantly increments the danger of teen age pregnancy, abortion is rejected, mostly for moral and religious reasons, thus the high rate of teen age birth.

Based on the CDC website, cultural norms such as traditions, values, and character have a great impact the risk of getting HIV. As result, it serves as somewhat of a strain towards promoting and practicing healthy sex practices. Some customs such as polygamy, and multiple partners will increase the risks of contraction. On the other hand, due to cultural modernization, such practices such as abstinence before marriage are slowly being eradicated. One method towards breaking this barrier would be to learn and understand about the different cultural beliefs and practices, and according to the circumstances may the implementation of laws/ regulations towards a certain might

Peragallo, N., Deforge, B., O'Campo, P., Lee, S.M., Kim, Y.J., Cianelli, R., & Ferrer, L. (2005). A randomized clinical trial of an HIV risk reduction intervention among low-income Latina women. Nursing Research, 54,108-18.

Many people are unaware of their health status further increasing transmission of disease in young adult African American(AA) women age 18-24. Human Immunodeficiency Viruses (HIV) infects and also destroy blood cells (i.e. lymphocytes) that the body need to fight off infection (Mays 2011). African American women HIV positive, age 18-24 the magnitude of issue of the health disparity in this particular population will be addressed along with the many factors of social and health determinants. The health concern is towards the increase of transmission among young AA mothers and their children who are the health outcomes in many ways than one. The many social and health determinants that affect the women today are on going cycles that have yet to be broken. African American women make 64% of new infection cases for HIV. African american obtain a vulnerability unlike other minorities. The health population’s culture and stigma has played an important role in the community. The concern for AA women is the increase of new cases and most importantly the spread of the disease to these women’s children. The mortality rate of AA women with HIV is 47.1% as of 2012. (Siddiqi 2015)

In the United States, HIV is spread mostly through anal vaginal sex or by sharing drug-use needles/equipments with an affected person. The risk factors are indistinguishable for everyone; some racial/ethnic groups are more affected than others, given their percentage of the populace. HIV/AIDs are a growing problem among American Indians and Alaska Natives (CDC). Some groups have higher rates of HIV in their communities, hence the rising of the new infections with each sexual or drug use encounter (CDC). Social, economic, and demographic factors including stigma, discrimination, revenue, education, and geographic regions- affect their risk for HIV.

An individual's risk for HIV or social determinants of health related to HIV is income, education, geographic region, poverty, gender orientation, early childhood experiences, and alcohol or substance abuse. The CDC