Your young, healthy, and homosexual white men are the only people who get HIV anyways. Right?
No!
A study done by the CDC ( Center for Disease Control) showed that in the year 2001, 28 in 100,000 Latinos over 13 years old had HIV. That is almost 4 times as many as Whites which had only 7.9 infected in 100,000 people. With percentage rates so much larger than whites it is very important for Latinos know how to protect themselves.
As said before HIV can be spread through blood, semen or vaginal secretions. Activities that can lead to you getting HIV are called risky behaviors by the medical community. Risky Behaviors include unprotected sex in any form, IV drug use, and substance abuse. While substance abuse cannot directly lead to HIV infection it usually increases the likelihood that you will engage in other risky behaviors. The more risky behaviors you do the greater your chances of getting HIV. (2)
So how do you protect yourself from HIV?
If you have engaged in any risky behavior that leads you to believe you may have gotten HIV, get tested. Early testing and treatment is a very important way of preventing the spread of any disease including HIV. To get tested contact one of the places listed on the Help page.
Do not have unprotected sex; yes, abstinence is the best way to protect yourself from HIV but we all know that usually that is not an option. To protect yourself use a condom every time you have sex no matter whether it's your first time or your first time or your thousandth time, whether you are having sex with a girl or a guy. Use a condom even if you are sleeping with only one person because you do not know who they are having unprotected sex with. If your partner says that they are not sleeping with anyone else and that they feel you do not trust them because you want to wear a condom or want them to wear a condom, then tell them that trust is being able to care about your partner enough to protect them from bad diseases like HIV by wearing a condom.
Guys, pressures from the Latino culture can push you away from wearing condoms because they are not considered manly. Machismo causes significantly more young Latino men to have negative attitudes toward condoms than others. (5) But the way that it is now Latina women are very trusting of their partners and generally do not feel the need to ask for or even discuss protection. In fact over 65% of Hispanic women in a study did not wear a condom with their main partner. It is up to you guys to be strong enough to protect both you and your partners against a terrible disease by being a man and wearing a condom. (6)
Remember condoms work only if they are worn properly, Not sure how to use a condom the right way? Below is a link to a site that gives detailed instructions on how to wear a condom properly.
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{ How to wear a Condom }
It is very important that if you are an IV drug user that you do not share needles. If you do then at least use a 1:3 bleach/water solution to clean out your needle before every time that you inject. If you do IV drugs, please seek help. There is a group called Shanti that can help you fight your addiction; please visit their website found on the Links and Help pages.
