THE LATINO COMMISSION ON AIDS’ DEEP SOUTH PROJECT A COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION PARTNERSHIP

Background: The Latino Commission on AIDS is assessing the current situation with regard to HIV prevention and care services for Latino residents in the southeastern U.S. where a new wave of Latino immigrants has occurred. Nearly 2 million Hispanics now reside in these seven states (North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana), many of whom arrived within the last 10 to 15 years. Local service providers in both the government and nonprofit sectors are struggling to build the infrastructure and capacity to respond to the needs of these newcomers, many of whom are vulnerable to health challenges due to the difficult living and working conditions they experience.

Provision of social services of all sorts lags behind this rapid population growth, including services related to HIV prevention and care. The Deep South Program has compiled information about the state of HIV prevention and care services available to these new populations and communities and has worked to bring together local partners at the state level to think strategically about how to improve these services.

HIV/AIDS prevention and care services for Latinos in the Deep South face special challenges due to the lack of community infrastructure and the high percentages of undocumented residents. Due to the transient nature of the population and their avoidance of contact with official entities, reliable and comparable prevalence and incidence statistics are scarce. However, the proportion of Latinos in the total HIV and AIDS diagnosis is rising steadily throughout the region; for example, Latinos comprise over 8 percent of new HIV cases in North Carolina and 10 percent of incident diagnoses in the Metro New Orleans health region. Service providers in the region consistently report an increase in the numbers of Latino clients they are seeing, and many are convinced that there is a ‘hidden epidemic’ in the region.

There are many barriers to better services for this population: lack of bilingual staff at agencies; fear and distrust of official institutions; lack of appropriate, sustained prevention education; low literacy and educational levels; high population transience; new restrictive laws limiting access to services for the undocumented; long working hours with few days off; substandard living conditions; and family separation.

Immigrants also face barriers in accessing health care of any kind. They often are reluctant to make contact with government institutions, including health departments. They may be unaware of the risk of HIV infection or experiencing sexual initiation without much orientation on sexual education, HIV prevention information or any type of safe sex guidance. Many are single men cut off from family and friends and with limited English proficiency.

At the same time, the burgeoning immigrant communities are developing important community resources including congregations, grassroots leadership, PTA participation, sport leagues, hiring halls, legal advocates, credit unions, neighborhood associations and other community institutions. Researchers and providers are experimenting with a variety of health promotion models.

The Commission has sponsored a series of statewide strategy roundtables on Latinos and HIV/AIDS in the following states:

• Louisiana, October 11, 2007
• Alabama, February 21, 2008
• Mississippi, April 22, 2008
• South Carolina, June 4, 2008
• Tennessee, June 25, 2008

In addition, the HIV/AIDS program of North Carolina convened a similar meeting to launch its state’s Latino HIV/AIDS Initiative on January 23, 2008. Georgia will host a seventh statewide meeting October 7, 2008.