CONTACT
Barb Tyler, Office of Communications (402) 471-3486;
Barb.tyler@nebraska.gov
Lincoln – September 18 was designated as National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day, which calls attention to the growing number of people living long and full lives with HIV as well as the aging-related challenges of HIV prevention, testing, treatment, and care.
Although doctor visits are more frequent, older people aged 50 and over and their providers are less likely to discuss or ask about sexual or drug use behaviors. Older adults may not consider themselves to be at risk for HIV and may be embarrassed to discuss sex, though they often have many of the same HIV risk factors as younger people. This includes a lack of knowledge about HIV prevention and the sexual risk of having multiple sex partners, and they may be less likely to use prevention options.
A growing number of older people are living with HIV/AIDS; improved treatments are helping people with the disease live longer. Nearly half of people living with HIV in the United States are age 50 and older, and many of them were diagnosed with HIV in their younger years. However, thousands of older people get HIV every year.
Older people are less likely than younger people to get tested, so they may not know they have HIV. Older adults might be coping with other diseases and the aches and pains of normal aging that can mask the signs of HIV/AIDS. It can take as little as a few weeks for minor, flu-like symptoms to show up, or more than 10 years for more serious symptoms to appear. Besides flu-like symptoms (headache, muscle aches, swollen glands, sore throat, fevers, chills, and sweating), people may develop a rash or mouth ulcers. Symptoms of later-stage HIV or AIDS include swollen glands, lack of energy, loss of appetite, weight loss, chronic or recurrent diarrhea, repeated yeast infections, short-term memory loss, and blotchy lesions on the skin, inside the mouth, eyelids, nose, or genital area.
Some older people may feel ashamed or afraid of being tested. Plus, doctors do not always think to test older people for HIV. By the time the older person is diagnosed, the virus may be in the late stages and more likely to progress to AIDS. Stigma is common among adults with HIV and negatively affects people's quality of life, self-image, and behaviors. People aged 50 and older may avoid getting the care they need or disclosing their HIV status because they may already face isolation due to illness or loss of family, friends, or community support.
Aging with HIV presents special challenges for preventing other diseases. Both age and HIV increase the risk for cardiovascular disease, lung disease (specifically chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), bone loss, and certain cancers. Older people living with HIV also have an increased risk of dementia. People aged 50 and older also need to be careful about interactions between medications used to treat HIV and those that are used to treat common age-related conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, elevated cholesterol, and obesity.
Older adults in the United States are more likely than younger people to have late-stage HIV infection at the time of diagnosis. People aged 50 and older may start treatment late, which may put this population at risk of more immune system damage. Of those people aged 55 and older who received an HIV diagnosis in 2015, 50% had HIV for 4.5 years before they were diagnosed, the longest diagnosis delay for any age group; this means treatment with HIV medicines is delayed, which gives HIV more time to damage the immune system.
People with HIV are living longer thanks to treatment with HIV medicines. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), over 51% of those diagnosed with HIV in the United States in 2018 were aged 50 and older. In this same year, approximately one in six new diagnoses of HIV occurred in this age group.
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that damages and weakens the body's immune system, the system your body uses to fight off infection and disease. Having HIV puts a person in danger of experiencing other life-threatening infections and certain cancers.
When the body cannot fight off infections and some other diseases anymore, HIV can lead to a serious illness called AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). AIDS patients are more likely to get infections, and are more vulnerable to unusual forms of cancers and other serious diseases. But with early and uninterrupted treatment, it is possible that a person with HIV will never develop AIDS.
There are drugs that, if taken consistently, can help suppress the amount of HIV in the blood to undetectable levels, improving overall health and making it harder to pass HIV on to sexual partners. To get the best results, it is important to start treatment as soon as possible. If someone is unsure about their own HIV status, get tested and always protect yourself and any partners when having sex or using needles.
If someone thinks they may have HIV, get tested. Those that are over 64 and are at risk for HIV, talk with a health care professional, as they can help determine how often testing is needed and help find ways to reduce any risk. If there is a very high risk for HIV infection through sex or injection drug use, prevention may be possible by taking an anti-HIV medication daily, called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, which is effective at reducing the risk of acquiring HIV, but it must be taken daily.
A small blood sample, mouth swab, or urine sample is used to test people for HIV. It can take as long as three to six months after initial exposure for the signs of the virus to show up in blood, and may be years before any symptoms develop. Testing is available at a doctor's office, hospital, community health center, or other health clinic; some places have mobile testing vans. AIDS services organizations also may provide testing. At-home testing kits are also available. Depending on the location, testing may be free and be given without a person giving their name. Many providers or groups that offer HIV testing also provide counseling.
If taking a test at home, make sure to use a test that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as any other may not give accurate results. Home tests are sold at drugstores and online. Follow up with a doctor to confirm the results of at-home tests and, if necessary, begin treatment.
Anyone at any age can get HIV. People usually acquire HIV from unprotected sex with someone living with HIV, through contact with HIV-infected blood, or by sharing needles with a person living with HIV. A person may be at risk from a blood transfusion or undergoing an operation in a developing country, having had a blood transfusion in the United States between 1978 and 1985, or if a person was diagnosed with or treated for hepatitis or tuberculosis (TB) at any time. If any of these risks are present, a person should be tested regularly for HIV.
For those who have HIV, it is important to start treatment as soon as possible after diagnosis. Treatment can help reduce the level of HIV in the blood to undetectable levels. When treatment makes HIV undetectable, the possibility of spreading the virus to a sexual partner becomes very low.
There is no cure for HIV, but if the virus is acquired, drugs can help suppress the level of HIV in the body and prevent its' spread to other people. Doctors use a combination of drugs called HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) to treat HIV/AIDS; this has greatly reduced the number of deaths from HIV-related complications in the United States. HIV has become a chronic disease, and people living with HIV receiving successful treatment can live a long and healthy life.
For more information, go to https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/group/age/olderamericans/index.html.