HIV and AIDS in Older Adults… Part I
A goal of The Aging Suite is to help educate people about health issues and topics that impact the aging population. One such topic is HIV/AIDS. Thanks to improved medications, today people with HIV/AIDS have longer life expectancies. However, as they age, the virus can impact various systems in the body, affecting their functioning at home and thus their ability to remain living in their home, aka aging in place.
HIV’s impact on the body of an older person:
• There’s a higher incidence of osteoporosis and osteonecrosis in people with HIV which may be caused by the virus or the medications used to treat it
• The Virus can cause peripheral neuropathy which can be due to drugs used to treat the virus or the virus infecting nerve cells
• Dementia due to HIV
December 1st was World AIDS day. It’s estimated that more than 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981. HIV/AIDS clearly has a huge global impact. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), published worldwide statistics on HIV and AIDS in November of 2009.
HIV/AIDS in the older population
According to a 2008 report released by the CDC, the number of people aged 50 years and older living with HIV/AIDS has been increasing. In
2005 people 50 and older accounted for
- 15% of newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases
- 24% of people living with HIV/AIDS
- 35% of all deaths of people with AIDS
- The incidence of HIV/AIDS among people 50 and older is 12 greater among blacks and 5 times greater among his Hispanics
Join us next week as we talk more about HIV/AIDS in the older population.
Source:
aidsinfonet.org and the CDC
