HIV, AIDS cases rising in Chicago as immigration drives spike in Latino community

After more than two decades of decline, HIV infections have begun to climb again. Cases have increased 29 percent from 2022 to 2024, with 818 new HIV diagnoses reported in 2024 alone. Nearly half of those cases were among Latino residents. According to a report by the Chicago Sun-Times, John Peller, CEO of the AIDS Foundation Chicago, said that this is the first time that Latinos accounted for most new diagnoses.

“What we’re seeing right now is really setting us back in the trajectory of the HIV epidemic and it shouldn’t be that way,” Peller said. “It’s going to ultimately cost taxpayers and society more money to take care of people who are living with HIV, who may come down with an AIDS diagnosis, [and] end up in the hospital than it would be to prevent HIV in the first place.”

From 2020 to 2024, the number of Latinos with HIV or AIDS in Chicago increased 17 percent, despite it dropping among the white and black populations during that same time. In 2024, there was an increase in people with a late diagnosis of HIV/AIDS, and half were Latinos.

City officials have suggested that the increase among this racial group is due in part to immigration, including people who have not been tested, as well as the effects of the pandemic, which interrupted testing and care. From 2022 to 2024, more than 51,000 immigrants, many of whom are Latino, moved into Chicago. Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Olusimbo Ige suggested some new cases could be due to increased testing among newly arrived populations, including those undergoing medical screenings in city-run shelters

“We want people to know that HIV is not a disease of one community or another. It is an area where we need everyone to be protected,” Ige told the Chicago Sun-Times. “And we need to change our strategies to be community oriented and culturally appropriate, but we don’t want any community to be stigmatized.”