HIV among the Latino Community

 HIV has become one of most significant threats in the Latino community, a community, which has been deprived even before HIV owing to the minority position, economic differences, and language difficulties. HIV is a particular threat to the Latino community due to some cultural issues, which make HIV prevention complicated. Simultaneously, Latinos have abilities and strengths in their culture, which can help to deal with this problem. This research paper offers an overview of HIV and its influence on the Latino community, concentrating on sexual and drug-related transmission and focusing on cultural issues, which should be taken into consideration when designing prevention and treatment programs for the community. Promising prevention approaches are also revealed.

The Latino community reported one in five new HIV infections in the USA in the year 2009 - a rate three times higher than that of the white community. Several factors lead to the extremely high levels of infection within the community, including the place of birth. For instance, there is a considerably larger percent of infections attributed to the drug use for males from Puerto Rico than anywhere else. These dissimilarities highlight the need for involvement that is socially and culturally suitable for the Latino community.

Taking into account very high rates of HIV within the Latino community, it is crucial to ask whether intimate and drug use behaviors are more imminent among Latinos than other groups. Sexual behaviors putting Latinos at risk embrace multiple sexual partners, anal sex, and the failure to use condoms. It should be mentioned that usually Latinos feel uncomfortable when asked about their sexual life and condom usage. Latino males and females reveal negative attitudes toward the usage of condoms owing to their association with sex workers, illnesses, and emotional distance. Latinos are also less likely in comparison with other ethnic groups to believe that condoms protect against HIV. Other reasons for the unwillingness to use condoms by men include loss of erection, decreased pleasure, discomfort and time related to their use, requirement to use condoms only with immoral females, less intimacy, decreased trust and impulsiveness, and drug and alcohol abuse.

Gender dissimilarities can also play a role in the capability of the Latinos to accept health services and preventive HIV education. For females, embarrassment of discussing intimate issues may prevent access to HIV prevention services. For males, issues like machismo sexual power, bravery, and fertility, which cause independence and distrust towards medical treatment can also prevent access to HIV treatment.

As for the drug abuse, it also delivers certain risks for HIV transmission. In fact, injecting is far more efficient way of transmitting HIV than sexual contact. Today, injection drug abuse estimates nearly 25% of new yearly infections. Nevertheless, some researchers think that the genuine percent of infections due to drug abuse is nearly impossible to calculate due to the unlawful character of drug abuse and the hesitation of drug takers to admit their addiction. Furthermore, the custom of sharing needles and syringes, as well as the participation in unprotected sex with several partners, are possible results of drug abuse. Due to these factors, injection drug use may be recognized as a major risk factor of HIV infection among the Latinos.

Hence, the proof concerning the comparative effectiveness of interventions targeting drug abuse within the Latino community is significant to estimate with the aim of positively influencing levels of infection in this community and guaranteeing that all Latinos have access to the important preventive programs.

To evolve the necessary treatment and counseling services for the Latino community, many important characteristics should be taken into consideration. If possible, services for the Latino community will be created by people speaking both Spanish and English who will acknowledge the cultural issues of the community.

The language barriers, cultural beliefs, conventional gender roles, and sexual norms may become obstacles to suitable care for the Latino patients infected with HIV. Deeply rooted religious beliefs have shaped the Latino culture. The conventional family is a heterosexual couple with children. Deviations from this style of life are perceived as a rejection of cultural and religious values. Moreover, there is a wide-spread belief among the representatives of this ethnic group that events are meant to occur due to fate, luck and powers beyond their control. A sense of fatalism can convince people that it is their destiny to be infected with HIV.

It is important to take into account that immigrants may not access screening, preventive, and treatment services out of fear of deportation. The language barriers, immigration patterns, social structure, and lack of regular health care among Latinos can influence consciousness and obstruct access to HIV prevention and care. Other factors contributing to the delays in the introduction of proper HIV care for Latinos include unemployment, poverty and limited access to healthcare coverage, since more than one in five (nearly 22%) Latino representatives suffer from poverty.

Moreover, there is an important cultural peculiarity within the Latino community - familismo (family), or the stress on the family as the most important social unit. For a healthcare provider, familismo has to signify that a patient will not want to share personal troubles outside of his or her family. People may postpone or even oppose treatment due to the advice and opinions of family members, which reflects the importance of family to a patient. A family member's advice can be treated as more precious to the patient than the recommendations made by the health care provider. Furthermore, the significance of children to Latinos can possibly augment the desire of HIV-positive females to carry a pregnancy to term and even to conceive more babies in the future. Today, such pregnancies do not inevitably result in ill children. However, the access to the necessary treatment is not so simple for low-income or drug-using people.

At the same time, though familismo may create challenges for HIV prevention, its influence might also be helpful for the struggle against the infection. The influence of HIV on the family, and particularly children, could be a major aspect in encouraging the change of lifestyle for the high-risk people.

In spite of the fact that the HIV epidemic has been overwhelming the Latino community for years, there are a few successful strategies for HIV prevention. In fact, interventions successfully addressing multiple cultural issues that challenge the Latino community should logically embrace the skills that have proven useful for other groups, but they must also address the complex cultural issues of Latinos.

These intervention methods embrace focus groups and thorough pretesting to recognize the grounds for using or not using condoms, which would be really significant for the Latino patients. Interviews with the hospital's personnel also assist in guaranteeing the practicability of the intervention. On the basis of this research, a culturally proper video for the Latino community called "Porque si" was already created. In combination with a small group discussion, this approach was twice as effective as usual care in encouraging condom usage.

Other approaches are also very important and deliver perfect results if they are founded on cultural issues. Intervention with bisexual and gay Latino males presupposes four structured small group discussions with continuing support groups and asks these men to keep diaries of their intimate episodes. These actions help to discover the cultural issues of shame, homophobia, and family ties, which can negatively influence their efforts to alter their sexual life.

Needle exchange is one more problem deserving thorough consideration. The altering of this approach may lessen HIV transmission among drug addicts and their sexual partners and children. Within the Latino community, it can be vital to decide where these exchanges may be situated, since the issue of privacy and the successful exchange may be compromised when they are placed where people exchanging needles are afraid of being observed by the neighbors.

HIV will carry on influencing the Latino community in the USA in spite of the crucial attempts to stop the spread of the infection. Several sexual partners and drug abuse are prevalent within the Latino community. Customary sex roles, as well as familismo, can obstruct preventive attempts. Simultaneously, there are also optimistic signals for the future. Cultural benefits, such as strong family orientation, may help to promote safe intimacy and decrease drug-related behaviors. Moreover, culturally suitable intervention for the Latino patients already exists and is accessible. Better acknowledgement and respect for the traditional Latino culture will create far better HIV preventive attempts.

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