Numerous celebrities have drawn attention to HIV/AIDS and its effect on the Latino community. Performer and songstress Chita Rivera, Colombian singer Juanes, Puerto Rican heart-throb Ricky Martin, Project Runway All-Star Mondo Guerra, television personality La La Anthony, veteran actress Rosie Perez, and Ugly Betty beauty America Ferrera have all spent years practising AIDS activism and contributing to HIV-awareness foundations. HIV/AIDS-related illness and death affects the entire community, which is why up-to-date statistics need to be continually produced and awareness needs to be continually drawn to facts surrounding the AIDS crisis and how it unduly impacts people of color.

The Black and Latino Gay average the highest number of HIV cases, and those rates continues to spike. While gay and bisexual Latino men comprise 2 percent of the national population, they account for three quarters of all new estimated HIV infections diagnosed between 2008 and 2010.

Black gay men, particularly young black men, are the most affected by the fatal virus, though Hispanics/Latinos are still disproportionately impacted. In 2010, gay Latino males were three times more likely to have HIV than whites, and socioeconomic factors such as poverty and language barriers play a blatant role in the high infection rates. HIV was found to have infected 9,800 Latinos during 2010, equaling one-fifth of all new HIV infections diagnosed, while Latinos represented about 16 percent of the population during. Most (79 percent or 6,700) of the estimated new HIV infections among Hispanic/Latino men were attributed to male-to-male sexual contact.

Proven HIV prevention methods need to be implemented and advertised in underprivileged communities, and that includes: HIV testing and linkage to care; HIV medications, access to condoms; prevention programs for people with HIV and their partners; prevention programs for people at high risk for HIV infection; substance abuse treatment; and access to sterile syringes; and STI screening and treatment. Latino Commission on AIDS is one of the lead organizations to support Latinos affected by HIV/AIDS, who are in need of safe sex education and care services. Aquiring healthcare, now made more accessible through the Afforable Care Act, should aid in informing and healing infected members of the Latino community.

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