Website contains best practices for caring for older adults with HIV

The American Geriatrics Society (AGS), the American Academy of HIV Medicine and ACRIA have launched HIV-Age.org, a website containing best practices for managing the care of older adults with HIV. The website requires no membership and welcomes comment and ongoing dialogue.

"Thanks to medical advances, people with HIV are living longer," Wayne McCormick, MD, president-elect of the AGS Board of Directors, said in a statement. "But with living longer comes more questions on the management of the common co-morbidities associated with aging. We have a responsibility to not only help people live longer but live better with proper care and treatment."

The effort is a continuation of the HIV and Aging Consensus Project, developed to assess how the presence of both HIV and common age-associated diseases alter the optimal treatment of HIV and other co-existing medical conditions. HIV-Age.org will house the original 2011 "Recommended Treatment Strategies for Clinicians Managing Older Patients with HIV" report that came out of that project. At launch of the site, nine of the 22 chapters have been updated.

In 2006, 26 percent of HIV-infected adults in the United States were aged at least age 50 years, according to the medical societies; in 2013, estimates placed that percentage at almost 44 percent. The most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that individuals in that age group account for one in six new HIV diagnoses each year.

See the AGS press release.