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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
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Accelerated Aging Tied to HIV/AIDS

Middle-aged sufferers have symptoms of HIV-negative 80-year-olds

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(Newser) – The aging population of Americans with HIV/AIDS is in a much different spot than those infected before the drug cocktail was introduced in the mid-1990s. But new research reveals disturbing trends related to aging. The cause is likely either the disease or the medications, and the result is symptoms—from frailty to memory loss—more common in octogenarians than in the middle-aged population in question. More than half of HIV-positive Americans have some sort of cognitive impairment.

“It’s spooky,” a watcher tells New York . “It seems like the virus keeps finding new tricks to throw at us.” Researchers say physiological symptoms like osteoporosis may be related to the toxic drug cocktail that keeps the virus in check, while HIV’s ability to hide out in the brain could be responsible for cognitive impairment and even dementia. One study shows medicated HIV patients at 56 have immune systems comparable to 88-year-olds.

The drug cocktail.
The drug cocktail.   (AP Photo)
A 52-year-old AIDS sufferer.
A 52-year-old AIDS sufferer.   (AP Photo)
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Issues of aging with HIV, compared to [the global AIDS epidemic], is like a subtitle. It has no political thrust to it at all. I’m not saying we should ignore the rest of the world, but domestic AIDS has been totally neglected.
- Jules Levin, activist

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Deebles
Nov 2, 09 10:35 PM CST
Well, that is depressing, but if it weren't for the tons of anti-viral drugs, HIV would still be a death sentence. To be 56 and HIV positive and alive is pretty wicked considering that a few years south and there would have been no AZT to get you to twenty years. It is medically interesting though that the constant infusion of anti-viral drugs--like you take when you got herpes for two weeks is such a devastation on the body. Too bad that Salk's polio vaccine hurt twelve children and Sabine tried to top Salk by mixing up live vaccine with chimps in the fifties. HIV--ever wonder why the French Institute that ran the clinic in Africa was the first one to identify the virus in Paris in the early eighties? Oh, wait. I forgot that everyone's lack of knowledge has been reconstituted as a finger pointing to conspiracy. The truth really is out there. You just have to read something. Can't google because google is like asking your mom. Reply
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thejoint00
Nov 3, 09 12:09 PM CST
just one more thing to add to the list of things that are abusing the health care system. Reply
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