LatinaLista — Saturday, June 27, is National HIV Testing Day.
While HIV/AIDS used to be the “gay man’s disease,” we all know that no longer is the case. Men, women and children of all ethnicities have the disease.
It’s been reported that Latinos comprise 18 percent of those individuals who have HIV and don’t even know it.
In the Latino community, getting the necessary information out there about HIV and AIDS is still a challenge since basically two communities of Latinos are afflicted with HIV — US-born Latinos and recent Spanish-speaking immigrants.
Yet, because this is the Cyberage, the Latino Commission on AIDS realized that more could be done to reach the Latino community. In the first phase of a two-part campaign to increase their presence on the Internet, the Latino Commission on AIDS revamped their web site to include more interactive features, resources and news items for readers to access.
The new site features:
- Powerful search engine
- Monthly editorial column by Dennis deLeon, President Latino Commission on AIDS
- “Ask the Expert” section answering medical questions
- Daily national and global HIV/AIDS news provided by kaisernetwork.org
- Current data and statistics on Latinos and HIV
- Weekly polls and a poll archive
The second phase of the campaign will roll out a Spanish version of the site in August 2009.
