Based on recent Center for Disease Control updates, Latinos are disproportionately affected by HIV, making up 20 percent of newly diagnosed cases in the United States in 2009, which is nearly three times higher than in ethnically Caucasian populations. Although the Latino homosexual male community, by far, is at highest risk for infection, Latinas were infected at a rate that is more than four times higher when compared to Caucasian populations. The most common cause of HIV transmission in Latino communities is, again, through homosexual contact. However, among Puerto Rican males, the transmission of HIV via intravenous drug use outnumbers rates compared to Latinos from other countries of origin.

Both males and females can become infected with HIV primarily due to unprotected sexual contact with infected males. Many of these females have no idea that their male partners are infected, whether through high-risk heterosexual contact (i.e. sex workers) or through covert homosexual contact, a phenomenon that continues to be on the rise. Often times, these females will come to know of their own infection at routine lab screenings during pregnancy or, worse, when their health starts to decline.

Other than the obvious reasons why intravenous drug use can put an individual at risk for HIV infection, the impairment of judgment that can occur under the influence of intravenous and other illicit drugs can lead to high-risk sexual behavior.

Exposure to other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) can put someone at risk for HIV infection. I am amazed to see how many of my patients engage in high risk sexual behavior and come to me in a panic about possibly having an STI. When asked if they want to be tested for HIV, many patients decline ...