Fifty and Older Americans Not Immune to HIV/AIDS and Other STDs

Americans are enjoying longer life expectancies and active sex lives thanks to improvements in medicine and health care. A perhaps unexpected consequence of these two factors is that people aged 50 and over are experiencing increasing rates of HIV/AIDS infection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

HIV and AIDS Statistics for Americans Aged 50 and Older

The latest information from the CDC gathered in 2005 reveals an increase in Americans aged 50 and older living with HIV/AIDS from the previous rate of 17 percent in 2001 to 24 percent and account for 15 percent of all new diagnoses of the condition. This age group also represents 35 percent of all deaths of people with AIDS.

The same CDC study also shows that the 50-and-over crowd's sexual behavior have resulted in increases of other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) with increases in the incidences of gonorrhea from 40.9 percent to 45.1 percent, syphilis from 4 percent to 4.8 percent and chlamydia from 33.4 percent to 37 percent, as reported by New York Amsterdam News.

It's obvious that not only are baby boomers and their seniors engaging in sexual activity, but they are doing so by engaging in risky sexual behavior. The HIV/AIDS rate among those 50 and older is higher than any other age group, except for those aged 35 to 44 years.

Contributing Factors

Advances in health care that have lead to longer life spans and an increased quality of life for those living longer, even with chronic diseases have contributed to more active sex lives for people aged 50 and over than in previous decades, explains MedSurgNursing.

Additional contributing factors cited by authors Lisa A. Jeffers and Mary C. DiBartolo include sociological issues such as more people in this age group being single either due to divorce or death of a spouse and health care providers not providing adequate counseling and information to the 50-and-over crowd about safe sexual behavior and practices.

Factor in the recent availability of medications that successfully treat erectile dysfunction and the fact that HIV/AIDS weren't even part of the picture in the youths of many people in this age group and you have near-perfect conditions for a fair rate of STDs for baby boomers and seniors.

Prevention

The CDC began a new high-impact HIV prevention program beginning January 1 of this year. Over a five-year period, the agency will be providing almost $339 million to health departments throughout the nation to establish HIV prevention activities, according to a CDC press release. In addition to the funds, the health departments will be receiving guidance from the federal agency for prioritizing prevention programs.

Jonathan Mermin, M.D., director of the HIV/AIDS Prevention division of the CDC, states that state and local health departments are the backbone of America's HIV prevention system and that this current HIV prevention program will lead to the slow and eventual end of HIV in this nation.

Smack dab in the middle of the baby boomer generation, L.L. Woodard is a proud resident of "The Red Man" state. With what he hopes is an everyman's view of life's concerns both in his state and throughout the nation, Woodard presents facts and opinions based on common-sense solutions.