AIDS first came to the medical scene and public attention in the 1970’s; then a diagnosis of AIDS was a death sentence. The life expectancy of anyone who had contracted the disease was very short making a study of the long term effects of the disease difficult.
The rapidly mutating virus developed resistance to the drugs that were used to suppress it. In the mid 1990’s drug “cocktails,” multi drug combinations of antiretroviral drugs were able to provide barriers to mutation. The number of deaths for AIDS patients dropped dramatically and long term aspects of the disease changed. Victims could expect longer life spans though they would require medication the rest of their lives.
The longer life expectancy of AIDS patients presented another set of problems. AIDS patients are living longer, but they are aging faster. Those in the 50 to 60 age group who suffer from AIDS, have the health issues that most people do not experience until they are a decade older.
The number of AIDS sufferers over the age of 50 has increased by 77% from 2001 to 2005, and now more than a quarter of the approximately one million active AIDS cases in this country are advanced in age. Of 5,049 patients who began AIDS therapy between 1995 and 2004, 997 were over the age of 50, 1,834 were 40-49 and the rest were between 18-39 years of age. AIDS presented new challenges to the medical community in the 70’s and 80’s and now the problems presented in the aging AIDS population is again challenging the medical community.
There is presently no data that specifically compares the onset of geriatric diseases between AIDS and non AIDS patients, but the medical community says that people in their mid-50’s, without AIDS, usually do not have heart disease or diabetes associated with lipodystrophy or oesteoporosis without additional risk factors.
Lipodystrophy is a side effect of the drugs that keeps HIV in check. It rearranges fat in the body and can lead to the sunken eyes and cheeks usually associated with advanced age. It can lead to insulin resistance and raise triglyceride levels. Individuals on AIDS therapy treatment are usually treated with corticosteroids to protect against other opportunistic infections that prey on HIV weakened immune systems. This can lead to a bone disease, vascular necrosis, and the necessity for hip replacement surgery. Other aging problems with HIV are the development of memory deficits and liver and kidney disease.
In a Jan 6, 2008 article in the International Herald Tribune, Jane Gross quotes Dr. Tom Barrett, medical director of Howard Brown, “All we can do right now is to make inferences from thing to thing to thing. They might have gotten some of these diseases anyway. But the rates and the timing, and the association with certain drugs, makes everyone feel that this is a different problem.”
Why is this happening? There haven’t been any studies to provide sound statistics of what problems are related to AIDS. Only recently have there been enough aging AIDS patients to study. The initial assumptions are that those who have survived with the AIDS infection, have immune systems and organs that first took a beating from the disease, and then were further damaged by the toxicity of the antiretroviral drugs which they took to survive the disease.
With lack of research, patient care suffers. Barrett says the incidence of osteoporosis warrants routine screening. However, in the United States, Medicare, Medicaid and most private insurers will not cover bone density tests for middle aged men.
The New York-based AIDS Community Research Initiative of America, in trying to provide help and assistance to older individuals with AIDS, found that depression, which is common to the elderly, is even higher among longtime AIDS survivors. They often grow despondent because of health issues and the deaths of friends and associates.
Mary Engel, writing in the Los Angeles Times on February 5, 2008 quotes Los Angeles resident and long time survivor Thomas Woolsey, 59, “Everybody I knew died in the late ‘80’s or early ‘90’s. It sounds like I’m the lucky one, but I don’t really think so. What good is a life without any friends?”
The rapidly mutating virus developed resistance to the drugs that were used to suppress it. In the mid 1990’s drug “cocktails,” multi drug combinations of antiretroviral drugs were able to provide barriers to mutation. The number of deaths for AIDS patients dropped dramatically and long term aspects of the disease changed. Victims could expect longer life spans though they would require medication the rest of their lives.
The longer life expectancy of AIDS patients presented another set of problems. AIDS patients are living longer, but they are aging faster. Those in the 50 to 60 age group who suffer from AIDS, have the health issues that most people do not experience until they are a decade older.
The number of AIDS sufferers over the age of 50 has increased by 77% from 2001 to 2005, and now more than a quarter of the approximately one million active AIDS cases in this country are advanced in age. Of 5,049 patients who began AIDS therapy between 1995 and 2004, 997 were over the age of 50, 1,834 were 40-49 and the rest were between 18-39 years of age. AIDS presented new challenges to the medical community in the 70’s and 80’s and now the problems presented in the aging AIDS population is again challenging the medical community.
There is presently no data that specifically compares the onset of geriatric diseases between AIDS and non AIDS patients, but the medical community says that people in their mid-50’s, without AIDS, usually do not have heart disease or diabetes associated with lipodystrophy or oesteoporosis without additional risk factors.
Lipodystrophy is a side effect of the drugs that keeps HIV in check. It rearranges fat in the body and can lead to the sunken eyes and cheeks usually associated with advanced age. It can lead to insulin resistance and raise triglyceride levels. Individuals on AIDS therapy treatment are usually treated with corticosteroids to protect against other opportunistic infections that prey on HIV weakened immune systems. This can lead to a bone disease, vascular necrosis, and the necessity for hip replacement surgery. Other aging problems with HIV are the development of memory deficits and liver and kidney disease.
In a Jan 6, 2008 article in the International Herald Tribune, Jane Gross quotes Dr. Tom Barrett, medical director of Howard Brown, “All we can do right now is to make inferences from thing to thing to thing. They might have gotten some of these diseases anyway. But the rates and the timing, and the association with certain drugs, makes everyone feel that this is a different problem.”
Why is this happening? There haven’t been any studies to provide sound statistics of what problems are related to AIDS. Only recently have there been enough aging AIDS patients to study. The initial assumptions are that those who have survived with the AIDS infection, have immune systems and organs that first took a beating from the disease, and then were further damaged by the toxicity of the antiretroviral drugs which they took to survive the disease.
With lack of research, patient care suffers. Barrett says the incidence of osteoporosis warrants routine screening. However, in the United States, Medicare, Medicaid and most private insurers will not cover bone density tests for middle aged men.
The New York-based AIDS Community Research Initiative of America, in trying to provide help and assistance to older individuals with AIDS, found that depression, which is common to the elderly, is even higher among longtime AIDS survivors. They often grow despondent because of health issues and the deaths of friends and associates.
Mary Engel, writing in the Los Angeles Times on February 5, 2008 quotes Los Angeles resident and long time survivor Thomas Woolsey, 59, “Everybody I knew died in the late ‘80’s or early ‘90’s. It sounds like I’m the lucky one, but I don’t really think so. What good is a life without any friends?”
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