September 19, 2008

First-ever HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day

The first-ever HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day was marked on September 18, 2008. Sponsored by the AIDS Institute, the day acknowledged the rising number of people living with the virus over the age of 50, Newsweek reports.

According to the article, the number of positive people over 50 increased by more than 700 percent between 1990 and 2005, largely attributed to advances in antiretroviral therapy. Today, people over age 50 make up 35 percent of overall HIV/AIDS cases, while those over 40 make up 70 percent, according to the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA).

“It's very much to me kind of a good news-bad news situation right now,” said Bill Stackhouse, PhD, director of the New York–based AIDS service organization Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC). “The good news is that the meds are great, and people are living longer. But now there's a whole new set of issues to be faced.”

Those issues include drug interactions and other conditions that become more common with age, such as diabetes and high cholesterol.

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Previous Comments:

Dean Allen, Signal Hill, 2008-09-23 13:10:06
Being over 50, and gay, is hard enough to cope with, especially in Southern California where ageism is as common as any other common thing in S. California, but after we "mature types" stayed alive 20+ years through all the nightmares of bad meds, sickness, wasting and close-calls, we are being ignored? Again? Typical! I will not be sorry to leave this society behind me when I go to meet my maker. Do we older guys have any voices speaking up for us? At all?

Brad Lawson, Anderson, Indiana, 2008-09-23 11:05:42
Wonderful news, to see an older population of HIV-AIDS surviors, but we MUST mentor the future! I have problems getting an IDS Doctor that sees me as more than Cattle! Even so, I am still an activist, and espouse the absolute truth to younger people- We can't promise there IS a tomorrow... but as certain as you're not prepared for it, it will come to bite you in the ass! After 21+ yrs. poz, I would have the message NO ACT IS WORTH THIS-YOU ARE YOUR ONLY CERTAINTY tattooed on my forehead.

David, Raleigh, NC, 2008-09-23 08:42:50
So where's the research involving AIDS after 50? The aging population in general in being ignored, and those of us with HIV along with normal aging issues of concern also face and wonder about prolonged use of antiretroviral therapy. Is no one interested?