LATINOS LESS LIKELY TO UNDERGO HIV-AIDS TESTING.

Byline: SUSAN ABRAM Staff Writer

Latinos are more likely than others to avoid HIV testing until they are hospitalized or have full-blown AIDS, compounding efforts to contain the spread of the deadly disease, a Los Angeles-based organization announced Tuesday.

As World AIDS Day approaches Friday, local organizations remain challenged with encouraging Latinos to get tested for HIV, saying cultural misconceptions about how the disease is spread remains a stubborn problem.

The study surveyed Latinos residing both legally and illegally in the Los Angeles area.

Conducted by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, the study found that 72 percent of those Latinos living with AIDS had been diagnosed less than a year after getting their first HIV test. By comparison, 35 percent of whites and 53 percent of blacks living with AIDS neglected to get tested less than a year before being diagnosed with the disease.

``We need to look at the reasons for this more fully, to understand whether it's based on immigration status or on language barriers,'' said Amy Rock Wohl, epidemiologist for Los Angeles County.

But a similar, smaller study conducted in San Mateo County traced the aversion to testing among Latinos to widely shared community beliefs that marriage and having children somehow lowered the risk for HIV. It also found that bisexual Latino men felt they were not at an increased risk of contracting the HIV virus because they did not identify themselves as gay, said San Mateo County epidemiologist Gladys Balmas.

Indeed, among Latinas in Los Angeles who are HIV positive, 44 percent did not know how they contracted the disease. Many had no more than three sexual partners.

``Messages on prevention are not reaching the Latino community,'' Balmas said. ``There also are cultural factors. When we talk to immigrants, they believe they do not fit into high-risk groups so the message is not reaching them.''

Local experts agree that prevention messages, such as using condoms, need to reach beyond the gay community and among intravenous drug users.

``It is obvious that Spanish-speaking Latinos do not benefit from prevention and treatment messages available in the mainstream media and health service industries,'' said Luis Lopez, coordinator of the Latino Coalition Against AIDS. ``We need more investment and better focused HIV outreach and education efforts directed to Spanish-speaking communities to reduce hidden risk behavior and increase access to health services.''

But some health experts say the apathy toward HIV and AIDS is not unique to Latinos, immigrants or a specific race, ethnicity or religion.

``What we're seeing now is more and more individuals who are not educated,'' said Dr. Jeffrey Galpin, an infectious disease expert based in Tarzana who has worked in the AIDS field for the last 20 years.

``That same fear that existed 20 years ago needs to continue,'' he said. ``You look at Magic Johnson, and Magic looks like he couldn't be healthier. Yet we're still dealing with a disease that has no cure.''

A widely reported study released this week concludes that AIDS will be the third leading cause of death worldwide within the next 25 years.

The U.S. government should be the first to extend medical care to the world, Galpin said, because AIDS and HIV is a universal epidemic.

``We can't be as myopic as we have been,'' he said. ``We can't live and hold our own and say let the rest of the world die. We will pay one way or another, be it economically or some other way. The same winds that blow in Africa will come to our shores.''

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Photo:

Isidro Barajas of Los Angeles protests what he says is limited access by Latinos to medications for HIV and AIDS.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer