HIV/AIDS Policy Fact Sheet: Latinos and HIV/AIDS, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (2013)

The Kaiser Family Foundation provides resources on national health issues. This fact sheet outlines the disparities in HIV infections among Latinos in the United States, particularly “Latino youth and gay and bisexual men,” as of 2010. Among other findings, the fact sheet reports that, while most Latinos are diagnosed and linked to HIV treatment, many do not remain in regular care or are prescribed antiretroviral therapy.

Additionally, the impact of HIV on Latino communities is not distributed uniformly throughout the country, with 10 states accounting for 86% of Latinos estimated to be living with HIV. However, there may be some methodological concerns with this geographic data, since certain states and metropolitan areas likely have larger Latino populations. Thus, data that do not account for relative population sizes may not be as useful for measuring trends in transmission rates, especially in areas with relatively small Latino populations. For example, the District of Columbia had few Latinos living with HIV, but a rate more than four times the national average for Latinos. This is significant because such data may be evidence of especially underserved Latino communities with more insular minority status.