Increased longevity as a result of HAART raises new questions about the best treatment

The median age of people living with HIV in the developed world is increasing because of improved longevity from highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and an increase in new HIV infections in older people.1 The prevalence of HIV in older people will continue to increase over the next decade, and around 50% of people living with HIV will be older than 50 by 2015.2 Although 50 years is not a common threshold for advanced age, early in the HIV epidemic the Centres for Disease Control and Infection identified HIV infected patients aged 50 or more as a separate group because the mean age of infected people was then much lower than 50.

In the early days of the HIV epidemic older patients had higher morbidity, higher mortality, and a shorter AIDS free survival than younger people with HIV. Some of this disparity was caused by late diagnosis in older patients . . . [Full text of this article]