Study sees differences in how U.S. Hispanics get HIV

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There are major differences among U.S. Hispanics in how they get infected with the AIDS virus depending on where they were born, officials said on Thursday, requiring more care in tailoring prevention efforts.

The trend was detailed in a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on HIV infection and AIDS among Hispanics, who make up 14 percent of America's population.

"In terms of the prevention messages, if you are looking at Hispanics, you can't look upon them as a monolithic group. You have to think about the various subcategories," Dr. Ken Dominguez, a CDC epidemiologist and one of the authors of the report, said in a telephone interview.

Infection through male-to-male sexual contact was more common among Hispanics born in South America (65 percent of HIV infection cases), Cuba (62 percent) and Mexico (54 percent) than among Hispanics born in the United States (46 percent), the CDC report said.

A greater proportion of Hispanics born in the Dominican Republic (47 percent) or Central America (45 percent) were infected through high-risk heterosexual sex compared with Hispanics born in the United States (28 percent).

Hispanics born in Puerto Rico had a greater proportion of human immunodeficiency virus infections due to injection drug use (33 percent) than those born in U.S. states (22 percent).

Immigrants born in Cuba, Mexico and Puerto Rico who were injection drug users reported less AIDS knowledge than U.S.-born injection drug users, the report said.

CULTURAL, SOCIOECONOMIC DIFFERENCES