AIDS Never Retires

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is in its beginning stages for the senior citizen population in the United States. Government statistics indicate 10% of individuals with AIDS are age 50 or above, with a quarter of these older than 60. The rapid increase in transmission in this age group is primarily because of unprotected heterosexual sex.

In spite of extensive campaigns to promote the use of condoms, most individuals 50 and older still feel they are not needed. This attitude is one reason the country’s fastest-growing AIDS demographics are heterosexuals 50 and older.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report the number of AIDS cases among those 50 and older remains relatively small--1,400 heterosexual AIDS cases diagnosed nationally in 1996, up from 700 in 1991.

But then we must listen to the rest of the story. Seniors are less likely than others to get tested for HIV, so observers are concerned the numbers may be larger and still growing. Often, seniors who develop AIDS-related symptoms of dementia, pneumonia and weight loss are not tested for the virus until after death. Physicians and patients assume these symptoms to be a natural aging process and dismiss the possibility of HIV.

We must be moved to advocacy. Society owes its elders awareness education for the prevention and testing of HIV in its early stage. Men must know that their behavior in a casual affair or visit with a prostitute may result in the infection of a loved one.

Women must require their partners to use condoms. You cannot judge a book by its cover. The men who carry the virus may be professional, well-groomed, educated and widowed.

HIV is naked to the eye and it does not announce itself on the foreheads of prospective suitors. Even when swept away in the heat of the moment, women must be prepared to use a latex condom.

Dr. Ruth Westheimer reports, “Women of all ages tell me they have trouble asking their partners to wear condoms. Women are sometimes afraid that they will lose a man if they insist on the use of condoms. I say, ‘If you would lose him over this, you would eventually lose him over something else! Better to lose him early and keep your health.”’

A reality check is in order. Seniors often continue to be sexually active well into their late 80s. The HIV/AIDS crisis has begun to reach the lives of those who are 50 and older. The tools of prevention are simple. Yet, like the doe, many do not move beyond the oncoming bright lights.