NBC News: Rojas (’99) Brings Effective HIV Prevention to Florida Farmworker Communities
Patria Rojas (SSW’99, MPH’00) uses her public health social work education to reduce the risk of HIV in Latina immigrants.
By Carmen Sesin, NBC News | Original story
A Latina researcher found an effective way to increase condom use among women living in farmworker communities in Florida — an important step in reducing the risks of acquiring HIV among a vulnerable community with less access to health care.
The approach? No nonsense and pretty direct.
“Many of them were ashamed to see themselves in the mirror — if they don’t know what a normal vagina looks like, how do they know if something is wrong?” said Patria Rojas, principal investigator of the study and an assistant professor at Florida International University’s Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work.
So part of the homework was for the women, who are mostly Latina immigrants, to examine their own bodies. Rojas also spoke to the women about HIV, explained what it is and how it’s transmitted. As homework, the women had to practice using a female condom, which can be placed in the body hours before intercourse, giving the woman more control over safer sex.
At the end of the study, women in general were three times more likely to use condoms, while single women were four times more likely to use them.
According to the study, condom use went from 19 percent to 33 percent among sexually active women between the ages of 18 and 50.
Rojas’ study, conducted under FIU’s Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse, called Crusada, focused on Latina women in rural communities of the Homestead area in Florida where there are fewer resources.
“I did this study because these women are at higher risk than women who have more education, live in communities where there is less HIV, and more access to treatment and health care,” Rojas said.
Of the 40,324 HIV diagnoses in the U.S. in 2016, around 1,277 were Hispanic women, according to the CDC.
The study evaluated the efficacy of a CDC evidenced-based and culturally tailored intervention called SEPA. The word means “know” in Spanish, but it’s also the Spanish-language acronym for health, education, prevention and self-care (salud, educación, prevención y autocuidado).
Sex as a taboo subject
Apart from socio-economic issues, there are cultural factors that can contribute to making some Latinas more vulnerable to contracting HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases. There is still the belief in some households that women should not speak with their partner about sex. Researchers describe this as part of “marianismo” (from the Virgin Mary) — the belief that women should be virtuous and pure compared to “machismo,” where men can be more sexual and assertive and be the ones to make decisions about practicing — or not practicing — safe sex, according to Rojas.
Coaxing women from these rural communities to participate in the study was not easy, since talking about sex is taboo for many of them. Rojas enlisted the help of organizations and members of the community who convinced women to take part.
”Some of them have kids, but they did not know how they got pregnant,” said Rojas, explaining the limited knowledge some of the women had about human sexuality and reproduction.
Margarita Hernández, 52, participated in previous studies and is now helping Rojas to urge women to participate in the SEPA intervention.
“It’s difficult to convince them because many of them don’t feel free,” Hernández said. “They have their husbands on their case,” adding that many husbands don’t feel comfortable or want their wives to know more about sex. […]
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