The state of HIV and aging
dallasvoice.comPLWH are living longer, but stigma remains a big issue By now we’ve all heard the statistics: 50 percent of people living with HIV (PLWH) are over the age of 50, and by 2030 it will be 70 percent.
When we talk about HIV and aging it always tends to sound like a laundry list of everything that can possibly go wrong as we get older.
But please indulge this old-timer as I ponder a few things for us to consider. Today, thanks to advances in treatment, older adults with HIV are faring better, but we tend to have an average of three or more co-morbidities than our peers without HIV, and these occur more frequently and at an earlier age.
Things like frailty, bone and neurocognitive issues, cardiovascular disease, cancers, kidney and liver disease — and inflammaging, the idea that chronic inflammation is the driver of many of these co-occurring conditions.
