Think and Link
Today is Link and Think day. Link and Think is an observance of World AIDS Day in the personal web publishing communities. Formerly "A Day With(out) Weblogs", the project involves hundreds of webloggers, journalers, diarists and other personal website publishers, each linking to resources about HIV/AIDS or publishing personal stories about how the AIDS pandemic has affected them.
My own personal experiences with AIDS have mainly been through researching it's effects so that I have a better understanding as to what it does. Education and understanding are the best ways to protect yourself, since there is no vaccine or cure at this point.
The other day I was having a discussion at class with a fellow classmate and he mentioned something about the elder population and AIDS. It appears that the cases of AIDS are on the rise with them and so I chose to do a little research into this today. Those of you that have seen "Grumpy Old Men" probably remember the scene where John and Ariel are about to, uh, get it on. The question of safe sex comes up and because it had been so long, they thought they were going to be ok. While it was a funny scene in the movie, it's just not the case in reality.
"Individuals aged 50 and older account for over 11% (81,000) of AIDS cases in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) AIDS cases among individuals over the age of 50 have increased 22% since 1991. The CDC also estimates that 14% of all individuals living with HIV infection are over the age of 50. Notably, in the state of Florida, 25% of all HIV cases occur in older heterosexuals. "
What is most concerning to me is that women over 50 are not as concerned about using a condom because they are unlikely to get pregnant. This increases their chances of contracting AIDS. Other concerns are that the disease is not properly diagnosed because physicians wrongfully assume that their older patients are not that sexually active. For instance, some "doctors may mistakenly assume that night sweats and depression are only symptoms of menopause rather than HIV/AIDS." I'm sure there are many of us out there that shudder at the thought of our parents having sex, but can you imagine how you would feel if you found out they had AIDS, and not only that, it wasn't found out until it was too late to really do much about it?
It's ironic, but I'm thinking about talking about this information with my family. To me, the only way to protect the people I love is to discuss issues like this. Now granted, I won't be going up to, say, my mom and ask her "Are you practicing safe sex?" That would be just too weird. However, my family tends to discuss a wide range of topics when we get together, and you can bet that the research that I conducted today will be discussed.
Articles to Read:
The Body: AIDS Action - Policy Facts: Older Americans and HIV
Never Too Old: For Sex or AIDS
HIV, AIDS, and Older People
AIDS May Escape Diagnosis in Older People