Clinical Geriatrics

For Patients

HIV and Older People

What is HIV/AIDS?
 The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes AIDS. HIV lives in body fluids such as blood, semen, and vaginal fluids. Direct contact with these fluids may infect you. Direct contact means sexual contact (vaginal, oral, anal) or by sharing needles for intravenous (IV) drug use.

AIDS destroys the body’s ability to fight serious infections.

As an older person, why should I be concerned about getting HIV?
 The percentage of HIV/AIDS cases in people over age 50 years is rising. The HIV virus does not care how old a person is—anyone is at risk if he/she has unprotected sexual contact or if he/she shares needles.

Don’t most people think that older people aren’t interested in sex after a certain age? Isn’t it part of that “dirty old man” belief?
 Many people are interested in continuing or starting intimate relationships, regardless of age. Older woman are at a disadvantage in this respect because there are more older women than older men available for relationships, as demographic information shows that older women live longer than older men.
 

With retirement, the children being out of the house, and the possibility of pregnancy drastically limited after menopause, many women find this a good time in their lives to engage in intimate relationships.
 

With the availability of impotence and erectile dysfunction medications, more men are able to maintain or regain a sexual relationship than ever before. None of these medications, however, protects from HIV.
 
If HIV/AIDS is such a problem among older people, why haven’t I heard anything about it on television or in the newspapers?
 Most of the public health announcements have been targeted to the young and to people who were considered to be at high risk, such as men who have sex with other men and intravenous drug users. The message has not been getting out to older people.

Don’t most of the HIV/AIDS cases in older people come from blood transfusions?
 Since 1985, a blood test has been used to screen donated blood for the HIV virus.  There is a very small chance (1 in 420,000) that a person can become infected with HIV from a blood transfusion.
 
How do older people become exposed to the HIV virus?
 Many older people will be exposed through sexual relations, either from homosexual or heterosexual relationships, or if the partner is bisexual or that partner has been with someone who is bisexual. When you have sex with a partner, you are exposing yourself to everyone that person has had sex with in his/her past. HIV is also transmitted by IV drug use or having sex with someone with HIV exposure from IV drug use. In large cities there often are more people exposed to HIV who live in senior citizen housing.

If HIV/AIDS was really a problem for older people, wouldn’t my doctor have raised the issue with me?
 Although about 76% of people visit a doctor at least once a year in the United States, only 15% recall discussing HIV or safe-sex practices during a physician visit. Older people make about nine visits per year to their doctors on average in this country, yet only about 11% of people over the age of 50 report having discussed the subject of HIV/AIDS with their doctors.