HIV/AIDS Among Hispanics

While HIV does not discriminate among different races, genders, or ethnicities, certain populations are carrying a larger burden of the HIV epidemic than others. The Hispanic population is seeing their HIV population continue to grow and become a large proportion of the new HIV cases. Let's take a look at the HIV epidemic and see the impact of HIV/AIDS among Hispanics.

Cumulative Effects of HIV/AIDS in the Hispanic Community

• Although Hispanics make up only about 14 percent of the population of the United States and Puerto Rico, they account for 18 percent; almost 164,000 of the more than 886,500 AIDS cases diagnosed since the beginning of the epidemic.

City & State HIV Stats

AIDS in the Hispanic Community

• By the end of 2002, nearly 88,000 Hispanics had died of AIDS.

• Among people given a diagnosis of AIDS since 1994, a smaller proportion of Hispanics (61 percent), compared with whites (64 percent) and Asians/Pacific Islanders (69 percent), were alive after 9 years.

• The proportion of surviving Hispanics was larger than the proportions of surviving American Indians and Alaska Natives (58 percent) and African Americans (55 percent).

• Hispanics accounted for more than 8,000, or 20 percent, of the more than 42,000 new AIDS diagnoses in the United States in 2002.

• Of the rates of AIDS diagnoses for all racial and ethnic groups, the second highest was the rate for Hispanics. Here is the breakdown:
  1. African Americans - 76.4 cases per 100,000 people
  2. Hispanics - 26.0 per 100,000 people
  3. American Indians and Alaska Natives - 11.2 per 100,000 people
  4. Whites - 7.0 per 100,000 people
  5. Asians and Pacific Islanders - 4.9 per 100,000 people

• The 76,052 Hispanics living with AIDS accounted for 20 percent of all people in the United States living with AIDS

HIV in the Hispanic Community

• Hispanics accounted for 13 percent of new HIV/AIDS diagnoses reported in the 30 areas with long-term, confidential name-based HIV reporting in the United States.

• From 1999 through 2002, the number of new HIV/AIDS diagnoses increased by 26 percent among Hispanics in the 30 areas.

• Most Hispanic men are exposed to HIV through sexual contact with other men, followed by injection drug use and heterosexual contact.

• Most Hispanic women are exposed to HIV through heterosexual contact, followed by injection drug use.

What Behaviors Heighten Your HIV Risk?

_{Statistics provided by The Centers of Disease Control, 2004 - Updated Oct. 2007.}