China: More Elderly People Affected by HIV; Prostitution Believed to Be Behind a Record Proportion of Seniors With the Virus

Senior Medical Officer Dr. Chan Kam-tim said recently that HIV is increasingly infecting middle-age and elderly people in Hong Kong. So far this year, that age group's proportion of HIV cases has increased to almost 14 percent. On 157 people diagnosed as HIV-positive through September, 21 were age 55 or older, and most were male, Health Department figures show.

Chan said the mode of transmission for this age group is unsafe sex. "I think it is a definite possibility that the high proportion of elderly people infected may be related to commercial sex," he said. Because seniors tend to be diagnosed with HIV later than other age groups, they are more likely to develop AIDS, Chan said. "The reasons may be due to depressed immune status as a result of increasing age, neglect of HIV symptoms and low perceived HIV risk." The phenomenon shows the importance of spreading the message that "no matter what age you are, if you practice unsafe sex, you have a high chance of contracting the AIDS virus." However, he said the department has no plans to target seniors specifically for AIDS prevention.

In all, 2,172 people in Hong Kong have been diagnosed with HIV since testing began.

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