Hispanic Leaders Call for AIDS Action

By William J. Cromie

Gazette Staff

Leaders of the U.S. Hispanic community met at Harvard on Monday to address the growing incidence of AIDS among Hispanics.

Although Hispanics represent 11 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 19 percent, or almost one in five, of AIDS cases reported in 1997. While cases of AIDS among whites have declined dramatically since 1986, cases among blacks and Hispanics have climbed steadily.

"Enough is enough," said Dennis deLeon, president of the Latino Commission on AIDS. "We cannot lose more people to AIDS." He called the meeting "a historic turning point, the first time so many Latino leaders have met to form a plan of action to deal with the crisis."

The Harvard AIDS Institute cosponsored the meeting, along with the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and several Hispanic organizations that deal with AIDS and health issues.

At the conclusion of the meeting, called "Leading for Life," or "Unidos Para la Vida," deLeon announced the formation of the National Coalition of Latinos Responding to HIV/AIDS.

Actress Rosie Perez was on hand to call upon Hispanics to "mobilize" to support those with the disease and to promote education and other preventive efforts. She described a plan of action to bring the situation to the attention of the public at large.

A primary goal, Perez said, "is to produce a movie to explain the Latino culture and how it deals with sex and drugs. We want to reach out through the cable networks to tell people they must discuss such things as sex and drugs openly and honestly."

A major cause of AIDS among Hispanics involves men having sex with men. But "homophobia has forced this behavior underground, where it is harder for prevention programs to take hold," according to a Harvard AIDS Institute report. The report also notes more reluctance in the Hispanic community to use condoms and widespread misconceptions among women about how the infection is transmitted.

Perez noted that the action plan also calls for a national fundraising effort. She envisions an event held simultaneously in large cities of the four states with the largest Hispanic populations: California, Florida, New York, and Texas.

"It would include a concert and dance, with celebrity hosts," Perez said. "It's going to be great.

"We're looking for big, big bucks from industry to get enough money for us to take control of our situation," she added. Except for representatives from the media and entertainment industries, no Hispanic business leaders were listed among the meeting attendees.

The group also discussed convening a conference for elected officials to examine the "emergency." In 1996, for example, the annual rate of AIDS cases diagnosed among Hispanics was three times higher than that for whites. During the same year, whites experienced a 21 percent drop in AIDS deaths while the decrease among Hispanics was only 10 percent.

Hispanic children have been hit particularly hard. As of 1997, nearly one quarter of all children diagnosed with AIDS were Hispanic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Hispanic children are now almost six times as likely to be diagnosed with AIDS as white children.

Meeting participants also denounced the federal government's decision not to fund the needle exchange program for drug users. As among whites and blacks, infected needles constitute a major source of the AIDS virus among Hispanics. Participants also called for the resignation of Barry McCaffrey, who leads the nation's drug control effort, for "choking off the lives of thousands of Latinos in waging his war on drugs."

Helene Gayle, CDC's national director for HIV prevention, urged the group to concentrate on prevention. "Better drug therapies are reducing deaths from AIDS," she said. "That's good, but successful efforts at prevention are better."