内容摘要：Besides coordinating prenatal and postpartum care — which experts say is crucial for keeping moms alive — local Healthy Start projects provide pregnancy and parenting education and referrals to services for things like depression or domestic violence. The local efforts also involve women’s partners and kids up to 18 months. And they focus on issues that influence health, such as getting transportation to appointments.

Besides coordinating prenatal and postpartum care — which experts say is crucial for keeping moms alive — local Healthy Start projects provide pregnancy and parenting education and referrals to services for things like depression or domestic violence. The local efforts also involve women’s partners and kids up to 18 months. And they focus on issues that influence health, such as getting transportation to appointments.

Nurse practitioner Eliza Otero, left, talks with Fernando Hermida during his visit at Pineapple Healthcare in Orlando, Fla. The clinic serves an LGBTQ+ population, especially Latinos living with HIV. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)Congress has appropriated

over five years to the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative, and jurisdictions that get the money areof it in community-based organizations. But the initiative lacks requirements to target any particular groups, including Latinos, leaving it up to the cities, counties and states to come up with specific strategies.In 34 of the 57 areas getting the money, cases are going the wrong way: Diagnosis rates among Latinos increased from 2019 to 2022 while declining for other racial and ethnic groups, the KFF Health News-AP analysis found.

Starting Aug. 1, state and local health departments will have to provide annual spending reports on funding in places that account for 30% or more of HIV diagnoses, the CDC said. Previously, it had been required for only a small number of states.In some states and counties, initiative funding has not been enough to cover the needs of Latinos.

South Carolina, which saw rates nearly double for Latinos from 2012 to 2022, hasn’t expanded HIV mobile testing in rural areas, where the need is high among Latinos, said Tony Price, HIV program manager in the state health department. South Carolina can pay for only four community health workers focused on HIV outreach — and not all of them are bilingual.

In Shelby County, Tennessee, home to Memphis, the Latino HIV diagnosis rate rose 86% from 2012 to 2022. The health department said it got $2 million in initiative funding in 2023 and while theDirector Paola Izquierdo, left, helps Mulato Teatro cast members harmonize their voices as they rehearse for their upcoming performance at the First International Afro-Scenic Festival, in Ticumán, Mexico, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)

Director Paola Izquierdo, left, helps Mulato Teatro cast members harmonize their voices as they rehearse for their upcoming performance at the First International Afro-Scenic Festival, in Ticumán, Mexico, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)Her life changed after she joined Mulato Teatro, a theater company that empowers actors of African descent who are eager to forge a career despite racism. However, like most Afro Mexican activists, Castorela believes that nationwide recognition is still a long way off.

“If we look around, we’ll see curly hair, high cheekbones, full lips or dark skin,” the 33-year-old said. “But there’s a wound that prevents us from recognizing ourselves.”Unlike the United States, where there have been concerted efforts to boost awareness of the