New program focuses on AIDS patients 50 and older

Of the estimated 33.3 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS, including more than 5,500 on Long Island, a growing number have reached middle age or older.

As vigils, protests and commemorations marked the 22nd annual World AIDS Day Wednesday, the leading AIDS advocacy group on Long Island launched a new program focusing on people age 50 and older.

"The number of older people with AIDS on Long Island is growing," said Catherine Hart, chief operating officer at the Long Island Association for AIDS Care. "It's not something that people think they'll have to deal with once they get to a certain age."

Adults age 50 and older "comprise 44 percent of LIAAC's HIV-positive case management program and 18 percent of all new HIV infections on Long Island," she said.

A five-year grant awarded in late September by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides $300,000 per year for a "Seasoned Adult Project" of community outreach, education and testing. "We were shocked at the older people who don't think they are at risk for this virus," Hart said. "They think it's a young person's disease."

Wednesday, while LIAAC's workers began three days of community outreach to offer confidential HIV/AIDS testing, the Center for Positive Health at the Nassau University Medical Center commemorated World AIDS Day with a moment of silence in memory of those who have died and a luncheon for patients, staff, family members and community service providers.

Since the mid-1990s, effective anti-viral medications have made HIV and AIDS more like a chronic condition than a death sentence for those with access to the drugs, and their longevity accounts for much of the growth in the over-50 age group.

But older people continue to get infected and need education, Hart said. Some of the grant also will be used to target substance abuse, which puts users at greater risk from infected needles.

LIAAC vans will set up in the Deer Park parking lot of the Suffolk County Department of Social Services Southwest Center Thursday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and at the Smithtown Inn parking lot from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday the van will be at the Hempstead Bus Terminal parking lot from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.