Navajo Nation aims to combat rising number of HIV/AIDS cases

Thursday, January 5, 2012  

The Navajo Nation sees about 35 new cases of HIV/AIDS every year, about three times the number of cases about a decade ago, The Los Angeles Times reports.

The first cases were gay and bisexual men who contracted the virus in urban areas, according to Jonathan Iralu of the Indian Medical Center in Gallup, New Mexico. But that began to change about a decade ago, when infections began to occur on and around the reservation.

Health officials and people who live with HIV say educating people on the reservation is difficult due to cultural stigmas about death. Emerson Scott, who was diagnosed in 1989 and volunteers for the Navajo AIDS Network, said no one has taken him up on offers to get tested.

Get the Story:
Navajo Nation confronts HIV and AIDS (The Los Angeles Times 1/5)

Navajo Nation, border towns see boost in new HIV/AIDS cases (12/02)