Texas State professor to speak on HIV risk among Latino population

By Jack McClellan
Office of Media Relations
November 2, 2017

Moctezuma Garcia, assistant professor of social work at Texas State University, will speak at the Biomedical HIV Prevention Summit, December 4-5, in New Orleans, addressing issues related to race and HIV biomedical interventions.

He will also speak in January 2018 at the Society for Social Work and Research in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

“Texas ranked third in the nation for people living with HIV, and highly HIV infectious clusters were recently identified in San Antonio among Latino men who have sex with men,” Garcia said. “My research raises awareness of the dearth of research endeavors focused on highly vulnerable populations, such as Latino men who have sex with men in the South. Greater endeavors need to be taken on developing culturally informed research in order to effectively address health disparities for diverse populations.”

Garcia published a paper September 27 in the scientific journal PLOS ONE on pre-exposure prophylaxis among Latino men who have sex with men (MSM) in the San Antonio area.

Garcia’s research is part of Dimelo, a study which explores important cultural issues, including the effect factors such as identity, religion and social networks have in determining access to and engagement with health care for populations such as Latino MSM. The project in San Antonio is a replication of research conducted by Garcia in Puerto Rico.

About Texas State University

Founded in 1899, Texas State University is among the largest universities in Texas with an enrollment of 38,694 students on campuses in San Marcos and Round Rock. Texas State’s 181,000-plus alumni are a powerful force in serving the economic workforce needs of Texas and throughout the world. Designated an Emerging Research University by the State of Texas, Texas State is classified under “Doctoral Universities: Higher Research Activity,” the second-highest designation for research institutions under the Carnegie classification system.