Currently, Hispanics represent 12.0 percent of the population in the United States (including Puerto Rico). Moreover, they comprise a youthful population, with a median age of 26.4 years, compared to 29.8 years for non-Hispanic blacks, and 37.4 year for non-Hispanic whites. Hispanic children are currently the largest group of children age 18 and under in the U.S. after non-Hispanic white children, according to the most current Census Bureau data.
However, while Hispanics represent approximately 12 percent of the U.S. population, they represent about 18 percent of all AIDS cases. Since the AIDS epidemic first began, through December 1997, there have been a total of 115, 354 AIDS cases among Hispanics, of which 67, 217, (58 percent) have died. The incidence rate for Hispanics is 4.1 times higher than that of non-Hispanic whites, and about half the rate for non-Hispanic blacks.
Furthermore, Hispanic children under 13 years of age, also show disproportionate trends, representing 23.2 percent of all U.S. children with AIDS while only making up 9.7 percent of U.S. children.6 Among the 1,876 Hispanic pediatric AIDS cases, 92 percent were exposed because their mothers had HIV infection. Most of these mothers (67.2 percent) were exposed to HIV through their own injection drug use or because they had sex with a person who injected drugs. The folowing articles provides more information about HIV-AIDS and the Latino population: