HIV prevention efforts should focus more on those over 50, suggests a recent study of adults in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Almost half of the 8,255 older HIV-positive adults in the study acquired their infection at age 50 or older, according to the report in the journal AIDS. Compared to those under 50, older adults were more likely to be late presenters, or persons diagnosed with HIV at an advanced stage of infection (48 percent vs. 33 percent).
"We have a group of people who don't get tested because they don't think they are at risk," said co-author Dr. Valerie Delpech, of the UK Health Protection Agency Center for Infections in London.
Of those 50 and older, late presenters were 14 times as likely to die within a year of diagnosis as older adults who were not diagnosed late. Among all adults diagnosed late, older adults were 2.4 times as likely to die within a year compared to younger adults.
The number of older HIV-positive persons seeking care in Great Britain in 2007 represents a 3.5-fold increase compared to 2000. Those 50 and older comprised one in 10 of the newly diagnosed with HIV in 2007, and the number of newly diagnosed persons over 50 jumped from 299 to 710 between 2000 and 2007.
"The numbers are still small, but everyone can be at risk, and we need to think about that," Delpech said.
Among those newly diagnosed with HIV in 2007, persons 50 and older were disproportionately male, white, and infected through sex between men, but the population was demographically varied, the researchers noted.
"It wasn't all gay men. In fact, there were a large proportion of heterosexual men and women," Delpech said.
The full report, "HIV Transmission and High Rates of Late Diagnoses Among Adults Aged 50 Years and Over," was published in AIDS (2010;24(13):2109-2115).
08/11/10
UNITED KINGDOM: Older Adults Get HIV Diagnosis Later, Die Sooner
Source: Reuters (08.05.10); Courtesy of the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention