Pangaea and Local Partners Join Forces to Address Late Diagnosis of HIV Among African Americans and Latinos in Oakland

Pangaea is working with two well respected community-based HIV programs in Oakland, the California Prevention and Education Project (CAL-PEP)and La Clinica de la Raza, alongside the University of California, Berkeleyand theAlameda County Public Health Department Office of AIDS, to explore reasons for late testing and delayed entry into care for HIV/AIDS in Oakland, California and define solutions to address this critical issue. This research project is being funded by the National Institutes of Health, Office of AIDS Research.

Late diagnosis of HIV – a diagnosis of AIDS within one year of receiving an HIV positive test result – has emerged as an important public health problem in the United States, and one that is likely driving the epidemic among racial minorities in Oakland.   

“It’s become clear that understanding and reversing the late testing trend is key to stopping the spread of HIV in Oakland and communities like it all around the U.S.,” said Dr. Ifeoma Udoh, Research Director for Pangaea, who is leading the Oakland project.  “Working closely with our community partners, we will be developing recommendations for interventions intended to bring people into testing and treatment at an early stage so that they can live longer and healthier lives.”

Responding to alarming racial and ethnic disparities in HIV, in 1998 Alameda County became the first local health jurisdiction in the nation to declare a State of Emergency for HIV/AIDS.    Over the last decade, Alameda County has experienced an almost two-fold increase in late diagnosis, from 39% overall to 57%; making Oakland, the county’s largest city, home to one of the fasting growing epidemics in the US.

The populations most affected by late diagnosis are the African Americans and Latinos, representing respectively 60% and 58% .  Individuals who receive a late diagnosis and are not accessing timely treatment services increase their probability of contracting opportunistic infections, of reducing responsiveness and/or developing resistance to drugs or simply increasing the possibility of death. In addition, late diagnosis means that opportunities to prevent further transmission of HIV to others are missed. 

Pangaea, CAL-PEP, La Clinica de la Raza, University of California, Berkeley and the Alameda County Public Health Department Office of AIDS are committed to reversing the trend on late diagnosis.  By developing recommendations for implementation of program models that can support reducing late diagnosis, encourage earlier HIV testing, and strengthening linkages to care, they are hoping to reduce the number of late diagnosis and bring people who need it into treatment as early as possible.