AIDS Education

            Latino communities are known for their strong stigmatization of HIV and AIDS which greatly affects the spread of knowledge and protection from the virus. Larger proportions of all Hispanic populations have been recorded as having less AIDS related knowledge than non-Hispanic groups (24). In one study, being Hispanic had a negative effect on knowledge about AIDS and less than 5% of Hispanics reported talking about AIDS with anyone at their health clinic, even after being infected (6). The same study recorded that 40% of Latinos did not know that condoms used during sex lowers the risk of AIDS. Latinos were also least likely to use a newspaper (6) and in a study investigating unmarried adults both Spanish speaking men and women believed that there was little they would do to avoid AIDS (34).  Hispanic women have also been found to have a worse physical well being than men (B5). It is clear that in order to approach the solution of eliminating AIDS it is necessary to increase education levels through means that are easily accessible and reachable to the Puerto Rican population in Cleveland.