Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
In February 2019, the U.S. government updated its national goals to eradicate the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic by 2030, and although there has been significant progress in the fight against it in recent years, this trend has not been reflected in the Hispanic and Latino community.
In addition, another epidemic, SARS-CoV-2, is presenting many challenges, especially for undocumented immigrants, who are more vulnerable to getting sick from COVID-19 because they are afraid to seek medical care due to their immigration status.
On World AIDS Day, which is commemorated on December 1 each year, the National Institute of Health (NIH) reported that there are one million people in the United States who are either HIV-positive or have AIDS. The number of cases reported annually peaked in 1993, when approximately 80,000 people were infected.
While from 2014 to 2018, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the annual number of diagnoses among adults and adolescents decreased by 7.0 percent; however, it has increased among other groups, such as Latinos and Hispanics.
A report from the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health, released in 2019, indicates that although the estimated HIV incidence in the U.S. has decreased 6.0 percent since 2010, among Latino and Hispanic populations, it has increased 14 percent.
Similarly, he reports that the annual number of Latinos newly diagnosed with HIV has increased by 7.0 percent between 2012 and 2016, in contrast to overall new annual HIV diagnoses across the United States, which have decreased by 4.0 percent.
When looking at the number of incidents by community, among the African-American community there has been a drop of 5.0 percent; among Caucasians it dropped 8.0 percent, while among Hispanics and Latinos it had an increase of 7.0 percent.
Within the Hispanic and Latino community, a key population affected by HIV is 13-25 years old, which has seen a 9.0 percent increase in new diagnoses, compared to, for example, African-American youth of the same age, which has fallen 10 percent.
The research also adds that men from the Latino and Spanish-speaking communities who have sex with men represented the greatest increase in estimates of annual infections in terms of race, ethnicity, and therefore are the group with the greatest transmission of the HIV virus, which causes AIDS.
Similarly, men aged 25-34 who have sex with other men, and who are of Hispanic or Latino origin, accounted for the largest increase in estimated annual infections of all population groups.
The Center for Adolescent and Family Health adds that some of the drivers of the epidemic may be the stigma associated with HIV, gaps in knowledge about the disease and its risks, distrust of the health care system, lack of health care coverage, as well as homophobia and transphobia.
The disparities among communities with HIV and AIDS are not the only challenge to achieving the goals of defeating the epidemic by 2030. Today, there is another epidemic that has magnified the problems for the Latino community: COVID-19.
According to Heriberto Soto-Sanchez, director of the Hispanic Forum on AIDS, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted services to curb the HIV epidemic, and even threatens the future of organizations fighting to eradicate the disease.
COVID-19 has exacerbated many challenges that immigrants already face, since in addition to dealing with HIV/AIDS - depending on their case - they have to deal with the stress of finding or keeping their jobs, having enough money to pay for housing expenses, as well as trying to stay alive.
Because, he said, stress can trigger an increase in viral load, which can make a person living with HIV much more susceptible to diseases such as COVID-19, this can be an extremely complex situation.
Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS, notes about the pandemic by COVID-19: "We have a unique opportunity to reinvent health systems," so that we are better equipped to create healthier and more resilient societies.
"We can take advantage of this opportunity and learn from AIDS and COVID-19 to implement substantial changes that will enable us to develop rights-based, equitable and people-centred health systems," he said.
