Health

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), expressed alarm over a Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) article that reported a startling 13% increase in HIV/AIDS cases among men who have sex with men (MSM) in the United States over the past four years. The article prompted AHF to renew its call for effective and sustained prevention efforts and a fast tracking of routine HIV testing nationwide. The JAMA article, which examines the upward trend among MSM in Western countries with a focus on the United States, attributes the uptick in infection rates to a rise in unsafe sex due to, among other factors, reduced fear over the disease’s potentially deadly consequences, lack of awareness of HIV status and substance abuse issues, particularly the use of methamphetamines and alcohol.

Black and Hispanic women have a different understanding of screening mammography compared with that of Caucasian women, according to the findings of a Boston University Medical Center survey presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Susan G. Komen for the Cure, recognized as the global leader in the breast cancer movement published the State of Breast Cancer report, a first-ever, reader-friendly snapshot-in-time of where the United States and the global community are in the quest to end breast cancer forever.

HispanicAd.com has again generously offered to allow me to discuss the urgent need for organ donation in the Hispanic community. Thousands of our fellow Latinos are on long lists awaiting organ transplants. Donated organs are the gift of life.

Cultural stereotypes about Hispanics could impede Latino youth from seeking help for drug and alcohol abuse. In turn, substance-abuse treatment providers must better understand how their own attitudes toward culture can affect the provision of sufficient behavioral health services, according to a new study. To do this, providers must first assess their own notions of culture and address any hidden biases.

The United States has been a nation of immigrants. Throughout the course of the nineteenth century, European immigration was widespread. With each new wave of migration, these groups brought new productive capacity and labor power that fueled the economic growth of the country. They also brought rich social traditions from their countries of origin, adding to the unique cultural mix in the United States.

The Tomás Rivera Policy Institute (TRPI), based at the School of Policy, Planning, and Development at the University of Southern California, released a study, which revisits the Latino “health paradox.” The Latino “health paradox” refers to the widely- accepted belief that Latinos in the United States tend to be healthier than the average population despite their generally low socioeconomic status.

The sense of family in the Latino community is so strong academics have coined a term for it: familismo. But for Latinos, family includes the village, the community at large. Dr. Garth Graham, a physician who heads the Office of Minority Health (OMH) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, thinks that the idea of familismo or la familia primero (family first) is a key factor, together with the community, for helping Latinos in their fight against HIV/AIDS.

On October 15th more than one thousand organizations in over 300 cities across the nation, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, came together to promote HIV testing and prevention initiatives in recognition of National Latino AIDS Awareness Day (NLAAD), a nationwide community mobilization campaign seeking to raise the visibility of HIV/AIDS within the Latino communities.