Latinos

The July 23, 2008 Washington Post front page expresses what many of us working in the HIV/AIDS community, particularly those involved with the Latino/Hispanic community, have been saying for some time. We are grateful that the Post has again put the issue of HIV/AIDS at the front line of the alarming healthcare disparities that impact the Latino/Hispanic community.

However, this should not be a surprise to anyone familiar with the data.

This article highlights what grassroots HIV/AIDS advocates have previously expressed to the Centers for Disease Control in trying to cajole them into more accurately and rightfully report HIV/AIDS surveillance data in our community

This article details, perhaps for the first time at a national level, a minor reporting discrepancy that has plagued the CDC’s surveillance data – namely that the CDC has historically understated (albeit, not intentionally) the number of Latinos/Hispanics infected with HIV/AIDS by not including in the overall numbers the HIV/AIDS cases for ALL Latino/Hispanic communities, especially Puerto Rico, where the incidence rates are among the highest in the nation.  read more »

I guess I should let it go but I'm still annoyed that CDC and JAMA officials treated the roll out of new HIV incidence estimates like Steve Jobs launching a new iPhone.

This product launch offers "consumers" scarcely any new fun features or software improvements, and if we allow the alarming new data to fall into oblivion, it will also fail to give the fight against HIV/AIDS any meaningful utility.

For months, AIDS advocates called for the public release of the data, which CDC admitted this weekend it had finalized in October 2007. An earlier release might have given the Bush administration second thoughts about requesting a $1 million decrease for CDC's domestic HIV prevention programs; spurred presidential candidates to talk more readily about HIV/AIDS in the U.S.; persuaded media pundits and debate moderators to quiz candidates on plans to end the epidemic; led Congress to pass even one of the dozen domestic HIV prevention bills languishing on Capitol Hill or motivated appropriators to finally boost HIV prevention funding or end long-held restrictions on how funding can be used.

No, instead the cult of embargoes prevailed, with no account to the burgeoning public health crisis the very paper in question describes.  read more »