Oct. 15 marks National Latinx HIV/AIDS Awareness day and the end of Latinx Heritage Month. This year’s theme is “It’s time to act. It’s time to end HIV.” As this observance comes to an end, it is important to remember the health disparities faced by people living with HIV in the Latinx community — and what we can do to end these disparities.
In a recent interview with the American Journal of Public Health,Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, PhD, MPH, LCSW, ANP-BC, AAHIVS, a researcher from the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health at New York University, says that stigma, language barriers, mistrust and lack of culturally appropriate care all play into these disparities.
“I want folks to know that on the policy level, we’ve got to create bridges for Latino communities to be able to access culturally competent care, and think about how to better engage a Latino community along that whole continuum,” said Guilamo-Ramos.
Moving forward, Guilamo-Ramos says that “reducing HIV stigma by normalizing HIV prevention and treatment, ensuring cost-free access to HIV treatment for undocumented immigrants, collaborating with Latinx community leaders” will help abolish these inequities.
While recognizing these health discrepancies is important, it is also important to celebrate Latinx Heritage and the role the Latinx community plays in ending the HIV epidemic.
On Friday, Oct. 15, Julio J. Fonseca, AIDS United senior program manager, is hosting an Instagram live conversation with Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Team Lead Francisco Ruíz. Fonseca and Ruíz will talk about: Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month, National Latinx AIDS Awareness Day, social media as a tool of HIV education and their personal experiences living with and working in HIV.
Join us for a celebration of Latinx culture as well as a conversation about National Latinx HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. For more resources about how you can help #StopHIVTogether, visit cdc.gov/stophivtogether.
The statements of the participants in the live video are not necessarily official statements of CDC.
