The American Academy of HIV Medicine (AAHIVM), American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA) released The HIV and Aging Consensus Project: Recommended Treatment Strategies for Clinicians Managing Older Patients with HIV, the first clinical treatment strategies for managing older HIV patients.
The report aimed to offer the best guidance for HIV practitioners and other health care providers who diagnose, treat, or refer over 50-year old HIV patients who also suffer from common age-old diseases.
In 2011, almost 40 percent of HIV-infected adults in the U.S. were at least 50 years old, accounting for 17 percent of all new HIV diagnoses each year based from data provided by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Jonathan Appelbaum, M.D., AAHIVS, co-leader of the study project and Director of Internal Medical Education at Florida State University College of Medicine, shared that this breakthrough is a valuable reference resource to help inform and guide physicians on how to best approach cases of older HIV patients who also manifest age-related illnesses. Project co-leader Wayne McCormick, M.D., MPH, a professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Washington’s Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine in Seattle, also shared that this will give any HIV clinician something to go on as there is so much about older people with HIV that is not yet known.
An Expert Panel formed last 2009 formulated clinical treatment approaches and strategies to develop a report on how to best manage older HIV-infected patients. With a two-year collaboration of AAHIVM, AGS, and ACRIA, the panel reached consensus to focus on the following categories: Screening, Monitoring, and Initiating Antiretroviral Therapy in HIV and Aging; Cardiovascular Risk Reduction, Diabetes in HIV and Aging; Monitoring Renal Function / Hypertension in HIV and Aging; Drug-drug Interactions and Polypharmacy in HIV and Aging; Viral Hepatitis Screening in HIV and Aging; Cancer Screening in HIV and Aging; COPD in HIV and Aging; Immunizations in HIV and Aging; Sexual Health in HIV and Aging; Osteoporosis in HIV and Aging; Advance Directives in HIV and Aging; and Neuro-cognitive Changes, Psychiatric Illness and Substance Use in HIV and Aging.
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