Causes For Seniors Contracting AIDS

People who contract AIDS have been known to be sexually active people between the ages of eighteen and forty. Because of this AIDS education has been focused on people of this age group. People rarely consider the threat of AIDS to seniors. Now medical research studies are showing that seniors are at risk of contracting AIDS as well.

Causes For Seniors Contracting AIDS

Multiple Sex Partners
Many people over 60 have been found to be very sexually active in spite of their age. Due to the growing divorce rate there is an increasing single population in this age group. As for seniors over the age of 70 there is a growing widow population among women. Due to the over 60 crowd's freedom from marriage, they are becoming more sexually active and have multiple sex partners.

Closet Homosexuals
Unlike the men of the younger homosexual generation, men over 60 who are homosexuals tend to keep their homosexual behavior secret. These men tend to secretly have a gay sex partner or partners and openly have women partners. These secret homosexual men often contract AIDS and spread it among themselves and their female sex partners.

Lack Of Condom Use
Condom use has been found to be rare among men over 60. In their youth they were raised in a more conservative environment. The discussion of safe sex and condom uses was not apart of their education in school nor discussed in the home. Using condoms was also considered unmanly during their younger days.

Impotence Drugs
The uses of impotence drugs has enabled more and more people over 60 to become sexually active. Such drugs are made for women as well as men, allowing seniors to be sexually active in their 70s and 80s.

Over the years there has been an increase in newly diagnosed AIDS cases among people over sixty. According to the CDC people over sixty now make up 19% of all newly diagnosed AIDS cases.

The highest known senior AIDS population is in Florida. According to the CDC, In Florida, a popular residential destination for retirees, seniors over 60 are the fastest growing segment of the AIDS population in the state. Two thirds of all Florida senior AIDS cases are from three counties, Miami-Dade county, Broward County, and Palm Beach county, which have highly populated retirement communities. These newly diagnosed AIDS cases are seniors in their 70s and 80s, and are found to be white upperclass women who are widows or divorced.

AIDS Education For Seniors
There is, unfortunately, very little focus on educating seniors about AIDS. For seniors, particularly the ones in their 70s and up, it is a taboo to discuss sex openly and casually. Even though they may have been active in promiscuous behavior in their salad years, their promiscuity was something they kept quiet and secret. They have a closet mentality about sexuality. As a result they are ignorant of the risk of AIDS. Because AIDS in the senior population is now becoming a concern, AIDS education through various venues targeting seniors should be organized.

Senior Centers
Senior centers are good places to hold AIDS education seminars. Senior centers are frequently visited by seniors age 70 and up. They go to the centers to meet and socialize with people their age and take part in social activities. Materials such as pamphlets and flyers can be handed out to seniors. Meetings can be held to discuss the risks of contracting AIDS. The senior center is also a good place to offer free AIDS tests. Free condoms can be made available easily for seniors who are ashamed of buying them. Even senior women can be encouraged to take and keep condoms if they are sexually active. They can keep them on hand for their male sex partners.

Senior Church Programs
Senior programs organized by churches are other good venues through which to inform seniors about AIDS. Churches may not want to pass out condoms. However, they could hold meetings informing about the causes and risks of AIDS and pass out print materials about the disease. AIDS tests can be encouraged and offered. Church programs can also encourage abstinence among seniors and discourage the uses of impotence drugs.

Doctors
Doctors tend to not think about discussing sex and AIDS with their senior patients. They tend to take it for granted that because a man or woman may be over 60 or 70 he or she is not sexually active. However, doctors should treat their senior patients the same as their younger patients. They should talk to their senior patients one on one about AIDS, and mandate AIDS tests on their sexually active senior patients. Doctors can make AIDS tests a requirement as they require blood pressure reading and blood tests for diabetes.

Family
Family members should also talk to their elderly relatives about AIDS. However, it may be rather awkward for adults and teens to discuss safe sex and AIDS with their parents, grand parents, and great grand parents.

AIDS is a life threatening disease that does not discriminate. Although it can be caught many ways, the main way people contract it is through sexual activity. Even though AIDS is a health concern for the young, it affects the senior population as well. All people should educate themselves and each other about AIDS and do all they can to protect themselves from contracting the disease.