HIV and the Aging Community



HIV and the Aging Community

Introduction

About 78.000 people aged 50 or more in the U.S. are living with HIV. It is about 10-15% of all people living with HIV in the country. In some cities, 15-25% of people living with HIV are people aged 50 or more. The number of elderly people who are diagnosed HIV infection continues to rise. About half of older people with HIV were infected within a year or less.

Many people believe that the age of 50 years can hardly be called "seniors." However, the age of 50 years is usually used to calculate statistics on the "elderly" people living with HIV. It is important for the community to understand the concerns and devise the intervention strategies for the elder population with HIV.

Concerns and Issues of HIV+Aging

The issue of aging with HIV and includes profiles of several categories: those infected for a long time (over fifteen years), those infected in recent years and those who have recently learned their HIV status. Contamination of people over 70 years would, in effect, a sharp increase. Seniority in the pathology appears to be an aggravating factor in health and loss of autonomy (accelerated aging), but also difficulties and social, psychological and emotional.

HIV-positive people over 50 years are less likely than the general population of similar age and own their homes usually housed in residence or social care home. Their limited financial resources and limited access to loans because of their pathology may account for much of this situation. Nevertheless, the prospects for hosting the coming years the concern, many are fearful of having difficulty accessing a retirement home, because of their pathology, representations it drains, the taboo the sexuality of older people it hits, the ignorance about modes of HIV transmission, what can also add the stigmatization of their sexual orientation.

Needs

The needs of older population with HIV are more complex than other age group. Diagnosis of HIV / AIDS among older people faces difficulties due to the fact that the symptoms of this infection can be mistaken for other immunodeficiency syndromes that occur in older people. HIV infection is greater rigor danger for elderly people at least by the fact that this category of people, usually not covered by public information campaigns, so that older people do not have information on how to protect themselves from infection.

Another major need of the older community is to have awareness about HIV. Various factors contribute to the increasing risk of infection among the older population. The older Americans know less about HIV as compared to the young age group because they have been neglected by those responsible for prevention messages. Besides, older people are not likely to talk about the sex lives or use of drugs with their doctors and the doctors do not ask the older patients about drug use or sex. The older people mistake the HIV symptoms for the pains and aches of the normal aging so they are less likely to get ...