On March 17, The Lancet HIV and The Lancet Healthy Longevity jointly publish Ageing with HIV ) album. Explores geriatrics behind the high burden of multiple complications in older people living with AIDS (HIV); the article notes the increasing number of older people living with HIV (usually defined as 50 years or older).
Screenshot from Lancet article
The efficacy of antiretroviral therapy (ART) and the success of global treatment regimens means that HIV is no longer a life-spanning infectious disease as long as individuals have access to care . However, this has also had an unintended consequence: an increasing number of elderly people living with HIV (usually defined as 50 years or older).
The number of people aged 50 and over is increasing because younger people living with HIV are living longer and older, and more and more older people are living with HIV. As a result, the prevalence and incidence of persons aged 50 years and older are growing faster than the general population, for example, in the United States, between 2015 and 2019, the overall prevalence of HIV infection increased by 8%, and the incidence rate decreased 4%; while in people aged 50 and older, prevalence increased by 40% and incidence increased by 15%. UNAIDS estimates that the global number of people living with HIV aged 50 or older will increase from 5.4 million in 2015 to 8.1 million in 2020.
Society’s awareness of HIV needs to be further enhanced. Because society believes that the elderly have infrequent sex life and no drug use behavior, many people believe that the risk of new HIV infection in the elderly is less . As a result, there is a lack of emphasis on access to protective health information and early HIV testing in older adults. Nearly half of older AIDS patients are diagnosed late in the disease course. In fact, older adults are more likely than younger adults to have multiple complications, the paper points out. However, older adults with HIV have more severe complications than uninfected people of similar age.
The article notes that, in addition to more complications, older people living with HIV also face issues related to discrimination. Insufficient and inconsistent use of research data in some regions, particularly in Latin America, may hinder the delivery of care and the development of appropriate policy and research, the study found. (compiled by Kong Tianjiao)
