Faced with an aging population with HIV, clinicians will need to help these older patients navigate a healthy route from antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation through complex comorbidities to an increased focus on maintaining function toward the end of life, according to a new report.
The Lancet HIV Commission report on aging and HIV outlines a three-phase approach to managing affected patients:Establishing a therapeutic alliance with patientsMaintaining health despite increasingly complex conditionsFocusing on patients' priorities for preserving cognitive and physical capacities
"Public health HIV prevention messages about safe sex, HIV screening, and early HIV diagnosis need to be better tailored to older people. People older than 50 years are 200-400% more likely to experience a delayed HIV diagnosis and treatment than people younger than 50 years, which can endanger their health, prolong the period in which their viral load is detectable, and expose other people to infection," wrote a group led by Amy Justice, MD, of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Relative to younger people, older people are assumed to be at lower risk of HIV infection, which can lead to delayed diagnosis and treatment. That sets them back in their ability to have healthy aging, cautioned Justice during a presentation at the International AIDS Conference in Rio de Janeiro.
