NCLR Latino Families HIV/AIDS Prevention Project: Facilitating access to HIV/AIDS education and testing in emerging and border communities

Research has shown that Latinos are more likely to test late in the stage of their HIV infection and to die of AIDS faster than all other racial/ethnic groups following an HIV diagnosis. Lack of access to health care and culturally and linguistically relevant information contributes greatly to Latinos' risk of HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, Latinos were the only racial/ethnic group to experience a doubling of heterosexual HIV infection from 2001 to 2004. As rates of HIV/AIDS continue to increase rapidly among Latinos living in both border and emerging communities, innovative strategies are needed to link Latinos with HIV/AIDS prevention education and related testing and care, particularly for those who do not identify with groups historically perceived as high risk, such as gay males and injection drug users. The purpose of this project was to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS, improve rates of HIV testing among Latinos, and promote early detection and treatment of the disease among affected Latinos residing in San Ysidro, California; El Paso, Texas; and, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. This was accomplished by: training individuals from the community to serve as health “promotores;” providing the promotores with culturally, linguistically, gender, and age appropriate HIV prevention materials; and conducting extensive outreach and testing. Promotores in these three communities were trained to conduct outreach and measure the effectiveness of the respective community education techniques. Findings indicate that the promotores model, combined with culturally and linguistically relevant outreach materials was successful in increasing HIV/AIDS related awareness and testing among over 4,000 at-risk Latinos.