ABOUT Infectious Love
OUR GOAL
Latinas continue to be affected disproportionately by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the United States (US). In 2017, Latinas accounted for 16% of new diagnoses of HIV infection among women, a rate four times that of White women. Latinas are three times more likely to die of HIV infection than are non- Latina/Hispanic White women. Often, Latinas are not aware of their HIV status. Also, their perception of low risk for HIV interferes with condom use, HIV testing and lack of awareness, access, and use of Pre-exposure Prophylaxis [PrEP]. These disparities indicate that HIV prevention among Latinas is urgent; therefore, we propose an innovative intervention – a filmed dramatized story (telenovela/soap opera) Infectious Love – culturally tailored for Latinas in the US and delivered online. This intervention builds on our preliminary work funded by the Miami Center for AIDS Research to develop a telenovela for Latinas.
Infectious Love, available in Spanish and English, emphasizes the influence of romantic relationships in HIV infection and the influence of intimate partner violence (IPV), depression, and substance abuse (SA) in HIV prevention behaviors. Incorporating Latinas’ ideas to co-create the stories, we developed the four-episode HIV prevention telenovela intervention in the US using an interdisciplinary and community-based participatory approach with Latinas mostly from México and Central America. The proposed study will pilot test Infectious Love and move the intervention to online using a website that will allow individual access around the clock from any location and device, such as a smartphone, ensuring wide dissemination of the Infectious Love telenovela intervention in the future.
