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AIDS Care journal has reported that
more than half of San Francisco’s AIDS-diagnosed patients are 50 years old or
older, stating that the city “is the first local jurisdiction to have reached
this milestone.” Many HIV-positive persons’ prognoses now are normal, due to
HIV treatment and care improvements, according to the investigators. The time
period between HIV diagnosis and AIDS diagnosis also has lengthened, and people
are living longer with AIDS, meaning an increasing number of people with AIDS
are at or older than 50. The study also illuminated the need for HIV medicine
to overlap with other medical specialties to accommodate caring for patients
with already complex medical needs due to previous AIDS diagnoses.
Investigators examined San
Francisco’s HIV/AIDS case registry for age distribution trends of
AIDS-diagnosed people living in the city between 1990 and 2010, as well as the
age trends in new AIDS diagnoses throughout the same time period. For each AIDS
case, the registry provided data regarding demographics and HIV risk group,
opportunistic infections, HIV diagnosis date, and CD4 cell count and viral
load. The investigators also used national registers to compile comparative
data concerning the age distribution of people with AIDS across the United
States.
At the end of 2010, San Francisco’s
population included 9,796 AIDS-diagnosed residents. Of these, 5,112 (52
percent) were 50 years old or older, with the proportion of people ages 50 or
older increasing progressively throughout the study’s 20-year time period. In
1990, only 10 percent of San Francisco’s AIDS-diagnosed individuals were 50 or
older; the proportion increased to 24 percent in 2000, 38 percent in 2005, and
52 percent in 2010. The United States experienced a similar trend nationwide,
with the proportion of older AIDS patients rising from 20 percent in 2001 to 39
percent in 2009. The study indicated that San Francisco experienced a sharp
decline in new AIDS diagnosis numbers. In 1990, health officials reported 2,047
new AIDS cases. The figure decreased to just 331 cases in 2010. Also, the age
profile for people newly diagnosed with AIDS changed. The authors reported two
reasons for their findings: peoples’ increasing age at the time of their AIDS
diagnosis, and antiretroviral therapy’s success in reducing AIDS mortality.
The full report, “People Fifty Years
or Older Now Account for the Majority of AIDS Cases in San Francisco,
California, 2010,” was published online in the journal AIDS Care (2013; doi:
10.1080/095401212.2012.752565).
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus.
To learn more about The Friends of
AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
