ORLANDO, Fla. — Miracle of Love, an Orlando LGBTQ nonprofit, is helping increase the number of bilingual HIV testers to help prevent the spread of the virus.
- Miracle of Love is a bilingual program
- The program features a one-day seminar
- Attendees learn to use Insti testing kits
Jose Aguilar, the creator of the bilingual program, said he began the program after he learned the language barrier made it difficult for the Florida Health Department to reach the Hispanic community.
The program is a one-day seminar where attendees learn about prevention, testing using Insti (a testing kit that gives results in a minute), how to counsel clients before and after testing, and linkage.
Here are five things to know about Miracle of Love and HIV rates in Orange County and Florida:
1. According to the Florida Health Department, there are more than 116,000 Floridians diagnosed with the virus, and 27,000 are Hispanic.
2. The Florida Health Department reports last year there was a rate of 36.5 percent reported HIV cases in Orange County per 100,000 population, which was the second highest behind Miami-Dade at 43.6 percent.
3. According to the Florida Health Department, Orange County had the highest amount of new HIV cases from 2015 to 2017.
4. Hispanics represented 31 percent of Floridians who received an HIV diagnosis.
5. So far, there have been two seminars and 20 people attended them. Miracle of Love posts on its website the date and time when it holds its seminars.