HIV/AIDS and Older Americans

HIV/AIDS is spreading among older Americans

• AIDS cases among individuals over the age of 55 increased by 14 percent between 2003 and 2007.

Factors contributing to an increase in HIV/AIDS among older people are:

• Limited HIV prevention programs for people over 50.

• Over the past few years, medications for HIV have led to people living longer with the virus.

• Many women over 50 are less concerned about using condoms because they are less likely to get pregnant.

• Older women’s thinning vaginal walls increase their susceptibility to HIV.

• Many wrongly assume that older people are not sexually active.

- A University of Chicago study found that 60 percent of men and 37 percent of women over 50 reported engaging in sexual intercourse a few times a month

- Another study has shown that sexually active heterosexuals over 50 are only one-sixth as likely to use condoms and one-fifth as likely to get tested for HIV as younger sexually active age groups.

- Increasing popularity of drugs for impotence has increased sexual activity among older people.

Sources:

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Surveillance Report, Vol. 19