HIV/AIDS and Older
Americans
HIV/AIDS is
spreading among older Americans
- AIDS cases among individuals over the
age of 55 nearly doubled between 2002 and 2006.
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
-
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.
There is a
disproportionate number of HIV/AIDS cases among older minorities
- 52 percent of older Americans living
with HIV/AIDS are either African-American or of Hispanic descent
-
49 percent
of the cases of HIV/AIDS among men above 50 are among men of color.
-
70 percent
of the cases of HIV/AIDS among women above 50 are among women of color.
Sources:
AIDS ACTION, “Older Americans and HIV”
CDC, “Basic Statistics”, http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/stats.htm
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Surveillance
Report, Vol. 18