New York, September 15, 2022- October 15th is National Latinx AIDS Awareness Day (NLAAD). NLAAD’s campaign brings together Hispanic/Latinx communities and service providers, and organizations providing services to Hispanic/Latinx throughout the U.S. and territories under one theme. This year’s theme “You Choose!” informs us about new developments in the scientific field of HIV, that provide us with new options to treat and prevent HIV. These advances, injectable medication that are administered once a month for treatment or once every two months for prevention, contribute further more to make possible to end this epidemic.

The “You Choose!” NLAAD Campaign creates awareness about our options to choose the medication that suits us better: the new long-acting injectable or the existing pills regimen.

We ask everyone to do their part in the fight against HIV: take the HIV test, learn about HIV and risk factors, consider PrEP and using condoms as prevention approaches, and stay adherent to HIV treatment to become virally suppressed or undetectable, taking advantage of the new options.

In 2020, the year in which we went through the COVID19 Pandemic, there were 30,692 new HIV diagnoses in the United States and dependent areas. Hispanic/Latinx account for more than 1 in 4 (28%) of these new diagnoses (8,294), despite representing only 18 percent of the national population. HIV continue to be a health disparity for the Hispanic/Latinx community. We see the impact of stigma, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia as major barriers in accessing HIV testing, prevention, treatment and care in our community. Hispanics/Latinx are heavy impacted by HIV/AIDS, addressing this is essential to our nation’s health.