DO YOU HAVE HIV/AIDS in your SENIOR YEARS?

Dear Global Action on Aging Readers,  As the New Year arrives, resolve to have Safe Sex!  If you live in the US, here are some useful resources.  If you live elsewhere, check your government's HIV/AIDS prevention programs.  Cheers and have a very Happy New Year from all of us at Global Action on Aging.

Treatment and Prevention  There is no cure for HIV/AIDS. But if you become infected, some drugs can help keep the HIV virus in check and slow the spread of HIV in the body. Doctors are now using a combination of drugs called HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) to treat HIV/AIDS. Although it is not a cure, HAART is greatly reducing the number of deaths from AIDS in this country.   You can action to prevent getting HIV/AIDS. Practice the steps below to lower your risk:

• If you are having sex, make sure your partner has been tested and is free of HIV.
• Ask him or her!   Use male or female condoms (latex or polyurethane) during sexual intercourse.
• Do not share needles or any other equipment used to inject drugs.
• Get tested if you or your partner had a blood transfusion between 1978 and 1985.
• Get tested if you or your partner has had an operation or blood transfusion in a developing country at any time.

For More Information from Helpful Resources

AIDS.gov
www.aids.gov
AIDSinfo
P.O. Box 6303
Rockville, MD 20849-6303
800-448-0440 (toll-free)
Monday to Friday, 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time
888-480-3739 (TTY/TDD/toll-free))
www.aidsinfo.nih.gov
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
1600 Clifton Road
Atlanta, GA 30333
800-232-4636 (toll-free/24 hours a day,
7 days a week/English and Spanish)
888-232-6348 (TTY/toll-free)
www.cdc.gov
CDC National Prevention Information Network
P.O. Box 6003
Rockville, Maryland 20849-6003
800-458-5231 (toll-free)
800-243-7012 (TTY/toll-free)
www.cdcnpin.org
National Association on HIV Over Fifty
23 Miner Street
Boston, MA 02215-3319
617-233-7107
www.hivoverfifty.org
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
6610 Rockledge Drive, MSC 6612
Bethesda, MD 20892-6612
301-496-5717
866-284-4107 (toll-free)
800-877-8339 (TDD/toll-free)
www.niaid.nih.gov
Services & Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian,
Bisexual & Transgender Elders
305 7th Avenue
6th Floor
New York, NY 10001
212-741-2247
www.sageusa.org
For more information on health and aging, contact:
National Institute on Aging
Information Center
P.O. Box 8057
Gaithersburg, MD 20898-8057
800-222-2225 (toll-free)
800-222-4225 (TTY/toll-free)
www.nia.nih.gov, www.nia.nih.gov/espanol
To sign up for regular email alerts about new publications and other information from the NIA, go to www.nia.nih.gov/health.
Visit NIHSeniorHealth (www.nihseniorhealth.gov), a senior-friendly website from the National Institute on Aging and the National Library of Medicine. This website has health information for older adults. Special features make it simple to use. For example, you can click on a button to have the text read out loud or to make the type larger.
National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services March 2009   Page Last Updated: April 24, 2012