Latinos with HIV/AIDS focus of retreat

Desert AIDS Project reaches out to Latinos
Nicole C. Brambila • The Desert Sun • May 27, 2009

A Latino-focused support group at the Desert AIDS Project will hold a health and wellness retreat the first week of June at Whispering Pines Cabins in Angleus Oaks.

The Grupo Latino retreat will offer individual and group activities, including yoga, meditation, and depression and anxiety workshops, as well as arts and crafts and nature walks, according to a news release.

Grupo Latino seeks to help Latinos and their families confront fear and loneliness, isolation and stigma, associated with HIV/AIDS. The group meets at the Desert AIDS Project the first and third Thursday of each month.

Established in 1984, the Desert AIDS Project serves people in the valley living with HIV and AIDS with medical care and social services.

In 2006, Latinos accounted for about 19 percent of all the new diagnoses and 19 percent of all those living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S. More 80,000 Latinos died with AIDS in 2006.

Roughly 1.1 million adults and adolescents were living with HIV/AIDS in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About one in five do not know they are infected.

Gay and bisexual men of all races account for the majority of those living with HIV.

This issue is particularly important in the Palm Springs area, which boasts one of the largest gay populations per capita in the United States.

Each year in California, an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 people become infected.

California has one of the highest infection rates in the U.S. with more than 100,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, according to the California Department of Public Health Office of AIDS. Riverside County ranks sixth in the state with about 3,170 people infected or living with AIDS, 2,098 of whom live in East Riverside County.

For more information on the retreat or Grupo Latino, visit www.desertaidsproject.org or call (760) 323-2118.