HIV surge in over-50s

HIV infections in the over 50s have more than doubled in seven years, latest figures show.

The number of people in this age group diagnosed with HIV in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has risen from 299 new cases in 2000 to 710 in 2007.

Of these, half were diagnosed late compared with a third in younger adults. A late diagnosis makes the disease more difficult to treat.

Three quarters of deaths among those aged 50 and over occurred within one year of diagnosis, said researchers from the UK Health Protection Agency.

Older people were also significantly more likely to have been infected through sex with men, compared with their younger counterparts.

Older heterosexual adults were also more likely to have been infected within the UK, but there was evidence to suggest that white heterosexual men may have caught the virus whilst travelling abroad.

Ruth Smith, a senior HIV scientist at the HPA’s Centre for Infections, said: “We estimate that nearly half of older adults diagnosed between 2000 and 2007 were infected at age 50 or over and this highlights the importance of HIV testing – whatever your age.

“We must continually reinforce the safe sex message – using a condom with all new or casual partners is the surest way to ensure people do not become infected with a serious sexually transmitted infection such as HIV.”

Currently, more than 83,000 people in the UK are living with HIV, but around a quarter of these don't know they are infected.

Late diagnosis of HIV infection is a serious problem in the UK. In 2008 there were 7,382 new cases of HIV with an estimated 32 per cent of adults over the age of 15 being diagnosed late.

When a person becomes infected with HIV, the virus begins to deplete their CD4 T cell count. People diagnosed late have CD4 cell counts of less than 200. To remain as healthy as possible, the CD4 cell count has to remain above 500.

The findings are published online in the journal AIDS and were presented at the International AIDS conference in Vienna.

This article was published on Wed 21 July 2010