Older AIDS survivors face new challenges (similar to HCV, IMHO)

Interesting to see that longer term HIV patients face very similar ones as those with HCV.  We tend to look at the more obvious issues like liver disease but there are really a host of issues which may surround being chronically infected for decades.  The other less known issues with HIV don't appear to be that much different than those we see with HCV.  These issues may point to one more reason not to wait too long to treat, even if your damage is minimal. -Willy

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110530/hl_afp/healthaidsanniversaryelderly

Older AIDS survivors face new challenges

by Hannah Dreier – Mon May 30, 3:31 am ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – AIDS nearly killed Lou Grosso three decades ago, but that didn't prepare him for the latest news from his doctor: he has heart disease.

Like many older HIV carriers facing problems -- including financial -- they never expected to live long enough to confront, Grosso, 57, also suffers from aching joints, memory loss and nerve pain.

Of the 14 pills he takes each day, only three are designed to treat HIV.

Dr. Brad Hare, his specialist at San Francisco General Hospital, keeps track of it all, but Grosso is still worried.

"I've often said to my doctors, 'You're so worried about the AIDS but I'm gonna drop over from a heart attack'," Grosso said. "It bothers me; I'm having a good life and don't want it to be cut short because my body thinks I'm 80."

While many have turned their attention -- and money -- to fighting the epidemic in Africa, experts here are increasingly troubled by a new kind of AIDS crisis.

Some 15 years into the era of protease inhibitors and drug cocktails, the first large group of AIDS patients to go through the aging process is facing a host of unexpected medical conditions, not to mention psychological and financial challenges they never thought they would live to see.

Grosso, who programmed some of the first personal software in the 80s, is amazed that he has survived long enough to learn how to build websites.

But he also worries that his mind isn't as sharp as it once was. He finds himself arguing with colleagues about whether topics were covered in meetings, for example.

"I'll just have no memory of it," he said.

A recent study found that 52 percent of HIV positive Americans suffer from some type of cognitive impairment. Only 10 percent of people in the general population, by contrast, experience such problems, according to the CNS HIV Antiretroviral Therapy Effects Research study.

HIV patients aged 55 and older are also three times as likely as non-infected 70 year-olds to suffer from a chronic health problem, according to the American Academy of HIV Medicine. Common illnesses include hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis and cancer.

In the early days of the epidemic, patients in their 20s were dying in overwhelming numbers in Dr. Hare's HIV/AIDS ward.

Today, more than a quarter of HIV patients are 50 years or older, according to the US Centers for Disease Control, and the average age in Hare's 3,000 patient clinic is 47.

"The problems people with HIV face are really changing," Hare said.

"I've heard patients say that it just wears them down. You've been dealing with HIV for 30 years and you finally have that under control, and now you're facing a new raft of medical problems. It seems unfair."

Experts are just starting to tease out which of these illnesses are caused by the virus, which are drug side-effects and which are just natural signs of aging.

Until recently, there were too few people aging with HIV to study.

The challenges posed by the greying of AIDS are not only clinical.

Experts also worry about patients like Vicki Davidson, who was planning to abandon her HIV treatment during a particularly lonely period this winter.

Davidson, 64, contracted HIV in 1986 from a blood transfusion after she was caught in a fire.

She underwent two hip replacements at the age of 50 and suffers from severe fatigue.

But what really gets her down is the social isolation -- the days spent at home, the difficulty of connecting with new people.

Like many long-term survivors, Davidson worries that it might seem indecent to complain about the consequences of aging with HIV when for so many years, survival itself was at stake.

"I don't want people to think, 'there's a whiner'," she said, "so I act like it's no big thing. But in my quiet moments, I think it would be nice to have a partner."

Long-term HIV patients are almost 13 times more likely to suffer from depression than other Americans, according to a 2006 study from the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America.

Davidson said she is feeling more hopeful of late, though a question about what brings her happiness draws only a long pause and then laughter.

Older AIDS patients are also more likely to be unemployed or short on savings than their healthy counterparts, according to a study from the Terrence Higgins Trust.

Homer Hobi, 65, recently went back to work as a realtor at an age when many of his friends are retiring.

In the 90s, he gave his home, business and a chunk of money to his ex-wife, despite the protestations of his divorce lawyer.

"There was no doctor that I talked to in '96, '97 that thought I'd be alive in 10 years," he explained.

Though stomach issues sometimes keep him homebound, Hobi said he is glad to be back at work, if only for the social outlet it affords him.

Lou Grosso has also had his share of financial difficulties -- he even spent some time on the street.

Now he lives in subsidized housing for people with AIDS and spends his time coding, participating in clinical studies and volunteering with younger patients.

Grosso, who loves science fiction books because they depict worlds where anything is possible, sees himself as a guinea pig in the service of generations to come.

"Why am I still here?" he said. "There's a reason why I'm still alive, and I want someone to find out why that is."

[babs824]

yes, this is one of the sad parts of the progression of life with serious illness like hcv or hiv.
it was heartening to see so many folks on this forum 50 yrs old or more. when i was treated for breast cancer some years ago i did not know if my liver could tolerate chemo. i expect that it did not help the progression as i saw a substantial increase in viral load after tx. most of my siblings have some cardiac issues so i have wondered what meds would have liver consequences. i have high cholesterol and tried a statin briefly. my enzymes went crazy and i stopped and tried a more healthy eating plan.
my thought on this is that it may harder for those who have preexisting conditions to undergo tx or to live with the disease. at the same time most of us have weathered the ups and downs of life and have good emotional resources if we are as lucky as i am.