AIDS cases continue to rise to the Hispanics
Himself as the AIDS epidemic in Los Angeles County moved mostly Hispanic, family doctors are studying this segment of the population often do not offer HIV testing or safer sex or advice to their patients, according to a new UCLA AIDS Institute . The study, published in the March issue of the National Association of Medical Journal, found that only 41 percent of primary care - including physicians, nurses, medical assistants and doctors - between March and June 2004 had regularly asked for advice on sexually transmitted infection offered or safer sex to the patient in the last six months.Only 36 percent had offered more than 20 HIV tests during the same period, despite the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control in 2001 that doctors in areas of high HIV prevalence tend
to offer their patients for HIV testing.What this study shows that despite increases in the number of new AIDS cases among Hispanics in Los Angeles County, with Primary Care providers do not seem to be increasing its offer HIV testing to patients, said Dr. Rosa Solorio on one, an assistant professor of family medicine the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and co-author of the study. Suppliers in the communities served primarily Hispanic and 57 percent said they spoke Spanish with the majority of their patients.
Statistics from the Los Angeles County Department of Health show that between 1992 and 2004, the percentage of new cases of AIDS among the Hispanic population has grown steadily each year, making Hispanics the group with the highest percentage of new
AIDS cases in the county . The study was conducted by Dr. Mitchell Kushner as part of his doctoral thesis at the UCLA School of Public Health. Solorio, who is also a member of the UCLA AIDS, Kushners served as thesis advisor. Kushner is now the Department of the Medical Director for County Medical Services Planning Area 3, which includes the valleys of San Gabriel and Pomona.Solorio research is funded by the Robert Wood Pages: [1] 2 3