from Jules: a lot of attention to aging science. But with 50% and greater of HIV-infected individuals aging past 50 years old & a significant percent over 60 years old these individuals are and will increasingly as they get older have to deal with a number or personal health issues not being addressed including depression and isolation at higher rates than HIV-unifected, housing & income concerns, worsening mobility, increased need for geriatric specialty care, potentially increasing cognitive concerns & falls which often result in fractures, and increasing rates of other comorbidities like kidney disease and heart disease. Although the Office of AIDS Research (OAR) and many researchers including the ACTG are addressing scientific issues as 10s of millions of dollars in grant support has newly become available to researchers, what is not receiving any attention are these personal & sociological concerns listed above. Small support groups for aging HIV+ individuals are recently cropping up in NYC but the issue regarding the needs for beefed up services gets no attention. The City of NY and other cities to begin with need an HIV/Aging Ombudsman to be a liaison between aging patients and their increasing needs. We need an infrastructure in HIV/AIDS that addresses these concerns but unfortunately there is no discussion about this at the Federal or local levels of govt including in Congress, Washington DC, at the NIH or the CDC or at the White House. Its great that we are deviating so much effort and finances to try to find a cure for HIV but these real-world aging concerns are getting no attention.
