URGENT NEW APPROACHES NEEDED TO END HIV/AIDS CRISIS AMONG LATINOS

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a new paper published on October 9 in the New England Journal of Medicine, experts are urging all sectors of the health care community to urgently evolve their approaches to meet the continuing HIV/AIDS crisis among Latinos. This call-to-action comes at a time when the decades-long effort to end the epidemic in the U.S. is showing overall progress. “As we celebrate overall success in curbing the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Latino HIV health inequities and the continuing HIV/AIDS crisis stand out as a failure that must be addressed urgently. The good news is that if we act now with a combination of existing and new approaches, we can achieve the kind of HIV prevention and care improvements for Latinos that we are seeing with other populations,” said lead author Dr. Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, executive director of the Institute for Policy Solutions at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and director of the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health. “To secure progress in ending the HIV epidemic for Latinos, we must address the structural drivers of HIV among Latino communities and engage a diverse set of stakeholders to rethink and improve our national response to this crisis.”

In “The U.S. Latino HIV Crisis — Ending an Era of Invisibility,” experts point to several factors that are likely driving Latino HIV inequities: HIV prevention, testing, and treatment services that are not designed nor delivered to meet the needs of Latinos; lack of effective programs addressing the harmful social determinants of health that impede many Latinos from achieving optimal HIV prevention and treatment outcomes; and a lack of urgency to invest in interventions that can end the Latino HIV crisis.
In their article, Guilamo-Ramos and his colleagues outline a comprehensive multisectoral approach involving researchers, public health practitioners, clinicians, policymakers and other community and private-sector actors, that can end the Latino HIV crisis. The approach offers a blueprint for action divided into six priority areas: Raising Visibility, Meaningfully Engaging the Latino Community, Improving the Public Health Response, Tailoring HIV Service Delivery, Addressing Structural Drivers, and Promoting Research and Evidence Generation. HIV surveillance reports issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in May 2024 illustrate commendable reductions in estimated new HIV infections for the country at large and for many racial and ethnic groups, but the data also point to an alarming trend for Latinos, who are experiencing a growing HIV crisis in the U.S. According to the CDC data, between 2010 and 2022, the overall number of new infections per year in the U.S. decreased by 19%, including a 29% reduction among Blacks and a 25% reduction among Whites. But during the same period, annual new HIV infections among Latinos increased by 12%. In 2022, about one in three of all new HIV infections occurred among Latinos, a figure that has grown significantly since 2010, when Latinos comprised about one fourth of all new infections.

The Latino HIV crisis is most severe for Latino men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender Latina women. In 2022, for the first time ever, Latino MSM accounted for more new HIV infections than MSM of any other racial or ethnic group. Most alarming in the MSM data is a 15% single-year increase in new infections among Latino MSM ages 25 to 34, part of a 95% increase in this group since 2010. Additionally, the number of new HIV diagnoses among transgender Latina women grew by 94% between 2014 and 2022.

“For more than a decade, I have been working with colleagues and stakeholders to raise awareness of the HIV prevention and treatment needs of the Latino community and to secure adequate policy and program resources to stop this crisis before it escalates further,” stressed Guilamo-Ramos. “This new data amplifies the need for greater visibility, political will, and resource allocation to stem the spread of HIV among Latinos, the largest minoritized racial and ethnic group in the U.S. and growing.”

Download the new article here on October 9 at 5PM ET.

Prof. Guilamo-Ramos is available for interviews. Contact Mark Daley at (202) 640-0482 (text preferred) or via email here to schedule a time.

Notes to Editor

BIOG: Dr. Vincent Guilamo-Ramos is Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Solutions and Endowed Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in Washington DC. He is a nurse practitioner and nurse scientist with clinical and research specialization in HIV prevention and treatment for Latino adolescents and young adults.  He served as a member of the NASEM committee that drafted the groundbreaking Ending Unequal Treatment report. He is a regular contributor to leading health scientific journals. He has been funded by NIH, CDC, and federal agencies for community-based Latino focused health research. He has served on numerous federal advisory committees and is a board member of UnidosUS, the Latino Commission on AIDS and the Power to Decide.

ABOUT THE INSTITUTE FOR POLICY SOLUTIONS
The Institute for Policy Solutions (IPS) at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing ends health inequities through evidence-based policy solutions. IPS is focused on nurse-driven solutions to solve one of the country’s most alarming and unsustainable problems: health inequities. Nurses bring novel solutions to health system reform that optimize health for all — no matter who you are or where you live. Our expertise and insight into the systems that deliver care and impact health, as well as what matters to patients, families, and communities, uniquely position the nursing profession to transform health care delivery to prioritize health and well-being. Through nurse leadership, the Institute drives collaborations with interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral partners in dialogue, discovery, and the adoption of solutions for making optimal health attainable for all. Details at ipsnow.org

ABOUT THE CENTER FOR LATINO ADOLESCENT AND FAMILY HEALTH (CLAFH)
The Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health’s mission is to reduce health inequities among Latino adolescents and their families. CLAFH develops, evaluates, and disseminates family-based interventions designed to address the social determinants of health, reduce health disparities, and foster life opportunities. CLAFH advances its mission through community-engaged research in four key thematic areas: (1) Strengthening the role of families in supporting adolescent and young adult health and life opportunities through the development and evaluation of family-based interventions; (2) meaningfully engaging the Latino community to identify, understand, and collaboratively address the underlying drivers of health and social inequities; (3) developing and evaluating innovative, nurse-driven models of health care delivery that improve access to and utilization of prevention and treatment services in underserved communities; and (4) driving real-world impact, locally and nationally, by promoting the uptake of evidence-based interventions and shaping the priorities of key decision-makers.

Learn more about CLAFH