New York, September 24, 2024— October 15 is National Latinx AIDS Awareness Day (NLAAD). NLAAD promotes HIV testing, prevention, and treatment within diverse communities to address the health challenges the Hispanic/Latinx community confronts. The NLAAD 2024 campaign brings together communities, service providers, and organizations providing services to Hispanics/Latinxs throughout the U.S. and territories under one theme: “Start Treatment. Stick to It. Get Better.”
NLAAD was first observed in 2003 by the Latino Commission on AIDS and the Hispanic Federation. Last year, in 2023, NLAAD turned 20 years old and focused on the different measures to prevent HIV making it possible for the population to live and enjoy life with less worries.
In 2024, NLAAD wants to focus on HIV Treatment and to address HIV stigma. Not only we want the community to have a better knowledge of the options available to treat HIV and to have a healthy life, reaching undetectable levels of Viral Load, but also bring attention to the obstacles that the Latinx community must confront to access treatment, which includes among several factors, HIV stigma. This year’s campaign is directed at the entire community but focused on people who live with HIV. The campaign urges them to choose one of the many treatment options to maintain their health, reach undetectable viral load and do not pass the virus to others (treatment as prevention). With this in mind, NLAAD’s theme for this year is “Start Treatment. Stick to it. Get Better.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Hispanic/Latinx people accounted for 32% of the 37,891 new HIV diagnoses in the United States and dependent areas in 2022, despite representing only 19% of the U.S. population. This percentage continuously increases year after year. There is a need to address stigma, language barriers, and barriers to health care that contribute to the HIV epidemic among Hispanic/Latinx people, particularly among young gay men and the Southern region of our country, which accounted for over 50% of the new cases. “Southern states continue to confront rising HIV diagnoses and alarming social stigma, and discrimination faced by our most vulnerable communities. NLAAD is an opportunity for all of us to bring visibility to the resources available in our communities for testing, prevention, and care.” stated Judith Montenegro, Director of Latinos in the South.
This National Campaign’s success resides in each of the thousands of events in every corner of our country. Through Health fairs, Testing sites, information tabling, beauty queen pageants, drag shows, sports events, informational webinars, food festivals, musical festivals, religious services, and a wide variety of events, YOU all contributed significantly to our NLAAD campaign through 20 years and we hope that you continue working with us until we reach our goal of ending this epidemic among Latinx and among the entire American population.
“For our 22nd annual NLAAD campaign, we noticed that there is still a need to continue promoting HIV testing, prevention and treatment among our community, and a bigger need to educate the population about the resources we have available these days to prevent and treat HIV, together with educating our elected officials about the disparities our Latinx Community confront to access testing, prevention and treatment for HIV” said Luis Mares, Director of Community Mobilization at the Latino Commission on AIDS. “There is a long path to walk till we reach the end of this epidemic”.
