OKLAHOMA CITY — Many Latinos think it can’t happen to them.

But Denise Cruz wants to break the silence and let them know AIDS and HIV outbreaks strike in all communities.

“We (Latinos) keep the stigma that it’s only in the gay community and it only happens to whites,” said Cruz, disease intervention specialist with the Latino Community Development Agency in Oklahoma City.

Hispanics constitute about 6 percent of Oklahoma’s population. Hispanic patients comprised about 5 percent of HIV cases and about 4 percent of AIDS cases in Oklahoma in 2005. Many cases, however, go undetected and untreated.

Sunday marks National Latino AIDS Awareness Day. The Latino Community Development Agency will host an event called “Breaking the Silence,” aimed at getting Latinos tested for sexually transmitted diseases and educating them on how to avoid the diseases.

“We try to help them understand how they’re at risk and let them know how to reduce those risks,” Cruz said.

She said Latinos are hush-hush when it comes to discussing sexuality.

That lack of discussion comes with a price.

Some men in the Latino community do not think of themselves as gay, but may sleep with other men. They may then come home to a wife or girlfriend and spread a sexually transmitted disease, Cruz said.

The stigma regarding homosexuality in the Latino community, “as much as anything, keeps people from getting testing and seeking help,” said Bob Settles, program coordinator for the Title IV and prevention programs at the Infectious Diseases Institute of the Department of Medicine for University of Oklahoma’s Health Sciences Center.

The fear of being deported is another reason why Latinos may not seek testing or treatment, said Elton Rhoades, disease intervention specialist coordinator at the Oklahoma City County Health Department.

The Latino development agency helps the Latino community in a confidential manner regardless of a person’s legal status in the United States. Cruz said patients can get tested for syphilis at the agency, but are referred to the county health department for other sexually transmitted disease tests.

Rhoades said the health department wants to test as many people as possible to prevent the spread of diseases. Many Spanish-speakers are not always comfortable when they are questioned about their sexual history because of the language barrier, he said. The message is often filtered through a translator and the conversation does not feel as private with a third party present.

Valerie Raines agrees.

She is a registered nurse for communicable diseases for the Muskogee County Health Department.

“When you’re one on one it’s a whole lot more comfortable,” Raines said.

She said the department also has a lot of women working there, which can be uncomfortable for male patients.

HIV-positive patients who live in an area with a 405 or 580 phone number area code have the opportunity to receive medical services from the Infectious Diseases Institute at the University of Oklahoma. Settles said the center served about 1,100 patients last year, but does not know how many in that group are Latino. If a patient has health insurance it will be billed, but the services are free to those within a certain income bracket who do not have insurance.

“It’s a pretty bleak picture if we didn’t have these services,” Settles said. “They would be looking at a pretty rough life.”

He said treatment for HIV-positive patients is expensive and many would go untreated without the center’s services.

Educating the community is often the first step to diagnosis and treatment.

Since sex is not discussed in many Latino households, “what you learn you learn on TV or what your friends tell you,” Cruz said.

She wants to change this trend.

County health departments throughout Oklahoma have health educators who go to schools to teach students about HIV and AIDS. Cheryl Peters, health educator and nurse for Garfield County Health Department, said she speaks with eighth- and 10th-graders about the diseases once a year in rural areas surrounding Enid. She describes the disease itself, how it is transmitted and ways to prevent it.

Before patients are referred to another testing facility for testing, Cruz and other disease specialists educate them on risk factors and that they can live a long life if diagnosed with HIV or AIDS and seek treatment.

“A lot think if they’ve been diagnosed they will die tomorrow,” she said.

Settles said he has seen patients live more than 20 years with the disease as long as they take medication and stay healthy.

“It’s not the death sentence it was in the 80s and early 90s,” he said.



Jaclyn Houghton is CNHI News Service Oklahoma reporter.