From Crisis to Cascading Disaster: Invisibility, False Narratives, Societal Inaction Drive Silently Worsening U.S. Latino HIV Epidemic

New microsite from Johns Hopkins Latino-health research center offers resources to drive awareness, urge action on U.S. Latino HIV Crisis.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Dec. 1 marks World AIDS Day, a time for global solidarity, remembrance and renewed commitment to ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In the United States, significant advances have been achieved in reducing new infections and supporting individuals living with HIV to prevent avoidable deaths. However, Latino communities in the U.S. have faced an escalating HIV crisis for over a decade. Estimated annual new HIV infections from 2010 to 2022 decreased by 19% overall in the U.S., but increased by 12% among Latinos. Among Latino men who have sex with men (MSM), estimated annual HIV infections during this period rose by 24%, while there was a 15% decline among MSM nationwide. For Latino MSM aged 25-34 years, the estimated increase was 95%. Despite these troubling trends, the Latino HIV crisis has gone largely unnoticed and unaddressed. Today, this already serious situation is worsening at a pace that should not be ignored. The Latino HIV crisis has evolved into a cascading disaster—a series of interconnected breakdowns across health, social and structural systems that amplify one another and make the problem increasingly difficult to solve. These trends are alarming and reflect a national failure of HIV prevention and treatment systems to adequately meet the needs of the Latino community.

Several factors drive the current Latino HIV Cascading Disaster in the U.S., including:

1. Latino Invisibility: Aside from Latino immigration, the Latino community in the U.S. remains largely underrepresented in the media and in public discourse. There has been a persistent shortage of news coverage addressing the health and well-being needs of the U.S. Latino community. 
   
   
2. Latino false narratives: Negative and misleading perceptions of Latinos have intensified, driven in part by harmful federal rhetoric and policies. False claims that Latinos "take more than they contribute," combined with anti-immigrant and de facto anti-Latino government actions, fuel fear and distrust. These stereotypes and structural hostilities directly undermine the community's health and well-being, including access to HIV prevention and treatment.
   
   
3. Societal Inaction: Despite a well-documented HIV crisis among Latinos in the U.S., the national response has lagged, allowing preventable harm to continue unchecked. Effective, national programs created by and for Latinos to prevent new infections and ensure treatment for Latinos living with HIV have not been funded and implemented—fueling today's Latino HIV Cascading Disaster.

New Resources, Tools to End HIV Among Latinos: The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health (CLAFH) has developed a new set of resources aimed at raising awareness and encouraging multi-sector action to end the Latino HIV Cascading Disaster. CLAFH's new Cascading Disaster microsite, available at CLAFH.org, offers a solutions-focused toolkit and features "Inside the Cascading Disaster," a new video produced in partnership with Bienestar Human Services, a Los Angeles community-based social services organization focused on improving health outcomes for Latino and LGBTQ+ people. The video showcases stories of Latinos impacted by and working to reverse the current Latino HIV crisis. Collectively, these new resources address current gaps in the national response and provide evidence-informed guidance on how best to eliminate HIV in the Latino community.

Available for Media Interviews: Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, PhD, MPH, NP, is the founding director of the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health (CLAFH) and a leading expert and advocate on the Latino HIV epidemic in the United States. Guilamo-Ramos has written extensively in high-impact scientific journals about Latino HIV/AIDS. He is a top authority on both the current factors driving the Latino HIV epidemic and effective policy and program solutions to end HIV among Latinos in the U.S. Previously, Guilamo-Ramos served as the co-chair of the Presidential Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). In this role, he provided guidance to the U.S. Health and Human Services Administration (HHS) on optimizing the nation's efforts to end HIV/AIDS.  As part of World AIDS Day media coverage, he is available to speak with journalists about the current situation and innovative solutions to the urgent crisis impacting Latinos in the U.S. 

ABOUT THE CENTER FOR LATINO ADOLESCENT AND FAMILY HEALTH (CLAFH): The Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health's mission is to reduce health inequities among Latino adolescents and their families. CLAFH develops, evaluates, and disseminates family-based interventions designed to address the social determinants of health, reduce health disparities, and foster life opportunities. CLAFH advances its mission through community-engaged research in four key thematic areas: (1) Strengthening the role of families in supporting adolescent and young adult health and life opportunities through the development and evaluation of family-based interventions; (2) meaningfully engaging the Latino community to identify, understand, and collaboratively address the underlying drivers of health and social inequities; (3) developing and evaluating innovative, nurse-driven models of health care delivery that improve access to and utilization of prevention and treatment services in underserved communities; and (4) driving real-world impact, locally and nationally, by promoting the uptake of evidence-based interventions and shaping the priorities of key decisionmakers. Learn more.

ABOUT BIENESTAR HUMAN SERVICES: Established in 1989, BIENESTAR is dedicated to the health and wellbeing of the Latino community and other underserved communities in Southern California. BIENESTAR accomplishes this by creating a safe haven and access to comprehensive health promotion, primary care, behavioral health and supportive services; and leading with research, advocacy, and mobilization based on community need. Learn more.

SOURCE The Institute for Policy Solutions at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing