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Older people face greater HIV infection risks: study

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-04 15:44

Doctors are failing to diagnose HIV in older patients, who are exposed to greater risk of infection as erectile dysfunction drugs extend their sex lives, a study published by the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

The report in the WHO Bulletin found that increasing numbers of sexually active people aged 50 and upwards -- who are more likely to risk unprotected sex than younger people -- are contracting the AIDS virus.

And although many people are having sex into their twilight years, HIV is still rarely considered as a cause of illness in older individuals. "Screening is less common for older adults, who are assumed not to be at risk," the study found.

"HIV prevalence and incidence in the over-50-year-olds seem surprisingly high and the risk factors are totally unexplored," the authors from the WHO and Minnesota's St. Olaf College said.

Patients over the age of 50 make up roughly 8 percent of new HIV diagnoses in Europe and 11 percent in the United States, where rising numbers of older people are infected with the virus that spreads through sex, transfusions, and needle-sharing.

"These individuals have a shorter time from diagnosis to the onset of AIDS, reflecting both age-related faster progression to AIDS and doctors' failure to consider HIV as a diagnosis," the report said.

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