Tuesday, October 15, marks National Latinx AIDS Awareness Day (#NLAAD) 2024. This year’s theme is “Start Treatment, Stick to It. Get Better.” Launched in 2003 and spearheaded by the Latino Commission on AIDS (LCOA) and the Hispanic Federation, the day draws attention the HIV epidemic among Latinos, one of the few population groups in the United States experiencing an increase in HIV cases.

Overall in the United States, new HIV cases continue to decrease. They dropped 12% between 2018 and 2022, to a total of 31,800 new HIV cases in 2022. There are about 1.2 million people living with HIV in the nation, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

However, disparities exist among different populations. “While the numbers of new HIV infections have declined substantially overall and for many groups [between 2010 and 2022], Latinos experienced a 12% increase,” noted Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, PhD, in a recent interview with AIDSVu.org, an interactive site that maps HIV data on communities across the nation. “In 2022, an estimated one third of new HIV infections occurred in Latinos. This is compared to less than one fourth in 2010.”

Although Latinos constitute nearly 30% of new cases, they only represent about 19% of the U.S. population.

“2022 marked the first year that more new HIV infections occurred in Latino [men who have sex with men, or MSM] than in MSM of any other racial or ethnic group. Most alarming were the findings that MSM ages 25 to 34 had a 95% increase in new HIV infections between 2010 and 2022,” continued Guilamo-Ramos, who works to end the HIV epidemic among Latinos. He founded and directs the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health (CLAFH) and serves on the board of UnidosUS, the largest Latino civil rights organization in the United States. “Between 2021 and 2022 alone, the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] recorded a 15% increase in estimated new infections in this group. It is also alarming that transgender Latina women—for whom HIV incidence estimates are not available—had a 94% increase in annual new diagnoses between 2014 and 2022.”

Posted by Latino Commission on AIDS on Thursday, October 10, 2024

AIDSVu.org offers more data and graphics; visit NLAAD.org for sharable posters and graphics, recorded webinars, resources and much more; and check out HIV.gov’s blog post on NLAAD for even more resources.    

Francisco Ruiz

Francisco Ruiz on the cover of POZ October/November 2024

In related news, check out POZ’s current cover story, “The Power of a Story Well Told,” a profile of Francisco Ruiz, the first gay HIV-positive Latino to serve as director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy.

Detail of a #NLAAD social media post from the CDC initiative Let’s Stop HIV Together.

An #NLAAD social media post from the CDC initiative Let’s Stop HIV Together.Courtesy of CDC.gov

To learn more about other HIV awareness days and to access a calendar you can download and print, check out the POZ feature “2024 HIV and AIDS Awareness Days.”