Sorry folks, other than the title I’m ripping off, this blog post doesn’t have anything to do with a Salt ‘n Pepa revival album. But it does have to do with talking about sex … to senior citizens, anyway. Turns out this population is vulnerable to contracting HIV/AIDS, in part because of a lack of education on the illness. But At-Large D.C. Councilman David Catania, health champion, is vowing to do something about that.
Catania, chair of the council’s health committee, has proposed a bill to establish an outreach program targeting senior citizens. The program would direct the Department of Health to develop a curriculum focused on HIV/AIDS and the senior population, including recruiting and training seniors to be educators on prevention.
According to Catania’s bill, the proportion of new AIDS cases nationally among adults 50 and older has increased to 26.4 percent in 2009 from 19.2 percent in 2005. In the District, 6.1 percent of residents 50-59 years of age are living with HIV/AIDS.
Also, older adults are more likely to get tested later than the rest of the population resulting in diagnosis and treatment delays, partially because they don’t talk about their conquests. A study by the U.S. Administration on Aging revealed that only about a third of older men and just a fifth of older woman surveyed had discussed sex with a doctor since the age of 50.
“Additionally, the symptoms of HIV/AIDS for older adults frequently mirror the aches and pains of the normal aging process,” Catania said in a news release.
