While public health campaigns remain largely focused on the young, the number of older people with the AIDS virus is continuously rising, global experts noted in an article published in the World Health Organization’s Bulletin.
“It's certainly true that we in public health concentrated our attention and efforts in terms of the AIDS epidemic and screening on younger individuals because those are the ones who are at most risk,” said Dr. George Schmid, a scientist with WHO's HIV/AIDS department in Geneva, and one of nine authors of the article.
This means that screening is not as readily encouraged for older people, which leads to a delayed diagnosis, decreasing life expectancy in people in this category of age. Whilst the life expectancy of those diagnosed with HIV between the ages of 5 and 14 is in excess of 13 years, this declines to 4 years for those infected after the age of 65.
According to the article in WHO’s Bulletin, studies in the US have seen an increase in HIV incidence in the over-50s from 20 percent to 25 percent between 2003 and 2006. In Brazil, the HIV infection rate in this category of age increased from 7.5 cases per 100,000 in 1996 to 15.7 cases per 100,000 in 2006.
What exactly has led to this increase? Scientists suggest that the availability of drugs treating erectile-dysfunction has extended the sex-lives of older people in the recent years. This goes hand in hand with a tendency for older individuals born in a world without AIDS not to practice safe sex.
“Physicians do not discuss sexual activity and risk factors for HIV infection nor are they as likely to suspect HIV infection in an older individual as much as they are in a younger individual … Physicians need to heighten their awareness that older individuals can well have risk factors for HIV infection and discuss those risk factors, including sexual activity with older individuals,” Dr. Schmidt said.
Another explanation could be that older people can be infected with the HIV virus much faster than young people due to a general decline in their immunity.
The authors of the paper noted that sexual activity remains the most likely mode of transmission for older people. However, more studies need to be done in order to establish the reason laying behind this worrisome increase in HIV cases among the elderly.
“We need to understand why and when these people are becoming infected so that public health campaigns can be better targeted to prevent such infections,” Dr. Schmidt said.
According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 33.2 million people living with HIV, including 2.5 million children. Around 95 percent of people with HIV/AIDS live in developing nations. But HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world.
