HIV/AIDS Among Older Adults A ‘Graying Epidemic’

Contact: Sandy Butler, (207) 581-2382; George Manlove, (207) 581-3756

ORONO, Maine — The majority of the nation’s baby boomers are now passing age 50, and so too is a growing population of HIV/AIDS patients — a phenomenon that health care systems may not be prepared to handle, says University of Maine gerontologist Sandy Butler.

“People with HIV/AIDS are aging like the rest of the population,” Butler says. “Twenty-seven percent of the people with HIV/AIDS are over 50. The thought is that within the next decade, about half of the people with HIV/AIDS will be over 50. It’s becoming very evident that it is an issue of older adults.”

Butler, a professor of social work, will moderate a special colloquium to address the matter Sept. 26 at Buchanan Alumni House on College Avenue. Sponsored by UMaine’s Center on Aging and the School of Social Work, the National Institute on Aging and the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (www.acria.org), the colloquium is free and designed for the medical and healthcare community, social workers, service providers, nursing students and researchers.

Butler says prevention education has been successful with at-risk populations.

Surveys have shown that heterosexual sex is now the leading cause of HIV/AIDS infection, she says.

Contrary to popular belief, the chief reason for this “graying epidemic” of HIV/AIDS in older adults isn’t the invention of impotency drugs, but rather the availability as of 1996 of the combination therapy HAART (Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy), Butler says.

“More people are surviving the disease and having sex throughout their lives, and if they are having sex with strangers, they are putting themselves at risk,” she says. “Also, if they are a part of this growing demographic of older people contracting HIV/AIDS, they are not as likely to be diagnosed. When people think about HIV/AIDS, they tend to think about young people. We need to change the way we think about it.”

What also needs to change to improve the testing, diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS sufferers is the stigma attached to the disease. Too many people with HIV/AIDS become secretive, reclusive and depressed, she says.

The Sept. 26 conference, from 9 a.m.-12 p.m., is free and designed to draw attention and education to policies, practices and attitudes, Butler says. For information about the conference, call the UMaine School of Social Work at g at (207) 581-2398 or visit the Center on Aging website (www.umaine.edu/mainecenteronaging) for a link to the colloquium flyer.

Keynote speaker for the colloquium is Mark Brennan, senior research scientist at the Center on HIV and Aging, AIDS Community Research Initiatives of America. Other Speakers include a clinical social worker at Acadia Hospital in Bangor, an AIDS activist and a clinical social worker from the Northern Maine HIV Program at Regional Medical Center in Lubec.