“My name is Ofelia and I am HIV positive.” Ofelia, 55, a resident of San Leandro started our conversation with a smile.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the HIV epidemic is a serious and growing threat to the Latino community. While Latinos represented approximately 15% of the United States (US) population in 2006, they accounted for 17% of new HIV infections in the nation during that same year. The rate of new HIV infections among Latinos in 2006 was 2.5 times that of whites.

“HIV is disproportionally affecting the Latino and African American communities,” said Dr. Paolo Troia-Cancio, Medical Director of CARES clinic in Sacramento which manages the care and treatment of 2300 HIV/AIDS cases.

“I see more Latino patients arriving to the clinic with the disease and the challenge is that they have a lack of understanding of how people acquire the disease,” added Dr. Troia- Cancio. “People do not realize that if they have more than one sexual partner they are putting their lives at risk.”

People do not only put their lives at risk they put other lives on the line as well - it is what happened to Ofelia. She is from Guadalajara, Mexico and arrived to the U.S. in 1996. As the oldest daughter of a family of twenty, Ofelia had to work very hard since she was a kid to help her parents with the responsibility of the household.

After Ofelia divorced her first husband she met Arturo. “Arturo and I live together for the last thirteen years,” said Ofelia. “In 2001 he was very sick that we have to take him to the hospital and we found out that he was HIV positive.”

“I was very scared but I had to test myself and the analysis showed that I was positive too.”

According to the Alameda County Public Health Department (ACPHD) the proportion of AIDS cases attributable to heterosexual contact has increased steadily since the beginning of the epidemic (1980). In 2000, women comprised the majority (57%) of heterosexual contact AIDS cases in Alameda County.

“A lot of people are getting infected because there is a lot of ignorance,” Ofelia said. “Men are infecting their partners without knowing.”

To address the lack of information and to support the Latino community, Ron Chavez and Antonio Osuna founded Grupo Fremont in February 2003.

“We want to prevent more HIV infections and we did not have a Spanish speaking group in our area so we decided to start,” said Ron Chavez, executive director of Grupo Fremont.

The group provides among other services peer psych-social groups, educational forums, HIV prevention events, peer counseling, peer advocacy, retreats and translation services.

“Information is a powerful tool in the fight against HIV,” said Dr. Troia- Cancio.

Grupo Fremont is having a cultural-health event on September 11, 2011, from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Washington Hospital, located at 2500 Mowry Avenue in Fremont.

Preventing the spread of HIV is the goal of the event, which will offer free HIV testing and HIV/AIDS informational workshops. Special guests will be Dr. Isabel Gómez, from Miami, Florida and Dr. Paolo Troia-Cancio. For more information, call (510) 593-1045 or email at ron94538@yahoo.com.