AIDS teaching should not be limited to the young.

• Author: Kaye, Richard A.

Most people have the impression that AIDS is a disease affecting only the gay community, intravenous drug users, and sexually promiscuous individuals. This erroneous belief has its foundation in the manner in which the media often report statistical data relating to the spread of this illness. The truth of the matter is AIDS increasingly is not restricted to any particular segment of society. Even the elderly have been found to be infected.

Since the late 1980s, the AIDS epidemic affecting the elderly has increased at a very rapid rate. According to the Centers for Disease Control, AIDS ranks as the 15th leading cause of death in the U.S. for people over 65. An erroneous assumption is that AIDS among the elderly occurs primarily because of tainted blood transfusions and partly is related to their often being in need of increased medical care and more frequent hospitalization. Thus, they are at greater risk of contracting AIDS from blood transfusions in such situations. In reality, AIDS among the elderly primarily results from sexual contact.

Part of this lack of awareness about AIDS and the elderly can be attributed to the scarcity of articles written about sexually transmitted diseases in this age bracket. The few articles that have been published mainly are epidemiological studies and are not focused upon educating the general public. The New York City AIDS Surveillance Report, arranged by age group and gender, states that men 50 and over who have sexual relations with other high-risk males account for 12% of reported AIDS cases (ranking third among six age brackets). Furthermore, women 50 years old and over who have sex with men at risk account for eight percent of reported cases (ranking fourth among six age brackets).

Most of the elderly, as with other age segments of the population, experience emotions that can be fulfilled only through fostering close relationships with other human beings. At all stages in life, human beings need to be loved and nurtured by other responsive human beings. Several major research undertakings, among them the well-publicized Masters and Johnson reports, have provided statistical evidence that sexual activity among older people occurs more frequently than is thought in contemporary Western culture. Other studies have found that sexual interest and activity can continue into the ninth decade of life. While it is true that sexual activity and interest gradually decline with increasing age, they do not disappear.

During the past decade, preventive measures aimed at reducing the AIDS pandemic have been directed towards specific segments of the population. Initially, the disease affected homosexual males; later, intravenous drug users; and, most recently, heterosexual adolescents and young heterosexual adults are the major population segments. Few measures aimed at preventing transmission of this disease originally were directed at men or women who were not substance abusers or homosexuals. Significantly, almost no efforts at prevention were directed at the more senior members of our society.

Certainly, the U.S.'s heterosexual population is at risk for HIV infections. The term "general heterosexual population," though, carries with it the connotations of mainly including the under-50 age group and individuals having sexual intercourse with exclusively heterosexual partners who are not intravenous drug users. Not taken into account are widows, widowers, and divorced individuals who establish relationships, most of whom assume their partners come from a purely monogamous sexual relationship. Many of these individuals are well...