HIV infection in older people

doi:10.1136/bmj.b1460

Published 15 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1460
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1460

Editorials

HIV infection in older people

Increased longevity as a result of HAART raises new questionsabout the best treatment

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The median age of people living with HIV in the developed worldis increasing because of improved longevity from highly activeantiretroviral therapy (HAART) and an increase in new HIV infectionsin older people.¹ The prevalence of HIV in older people willcontinue to increase over the next decade, and around 50% ofpeople living with HIV will be older than 50 by 2015.² Although50 years is not a common threshold for advanced age, early inthe HIV epidemic the Centres for Disease Control and Infectionidentified HIV infected patients aged 50 or more as a separategroup because the mean age of infected people was then muchlower than 50.

In the early days of the HIV epidemic older patients had highermorbidity, higher mortality, and a shorter AIDS free survivalthan younger people with HIV. Some of this disparity was causedby late diagnosis in older patients . . . [Full text of this article]

Kelly A Gebo, associate professor of medicine, epidemiology

¹ Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA

kgebo@jhmi.edu