Older AIDS survivors face new challenges

Source: Yahoo News/AFP

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – AIDS nearly killed Lou Grosso three decades ago, but that didn't prepare him for the latest news from his doctor: he has heart disease.

Like many older HIV carriers facing problems -- including financial -- they never expected to live long enough to confront, Grosso, 57, also suffers from aching joints, memory loss and nerve pain. Of the 14 pills he takes each day, only three are designed to treat HIV.

Dr. Brad Hare, his specialist at San Francisco General Hospital, keeps track of it all, but Grosso is still worried.

"I've often said to my doctors, 'You're so worried about the AIDS but I'm gonna drop over from a heart attack'," Grosso said. "It bothers me; I'm having a good life and don't want it to be cut short because my body thinks I'm 80."

While many have turned their attention -- and money -- to fighting the epidemic in Africa, experts here are increasingly troubled by a new kind of AIDS crisis.

Some 15 years into the era of protease inhibitors and drug cocktails, the first large group of AIDS patients to go through the aging process is facing a host of unexpected medical conditions, not to mention psychological and financial challenges they never thought they would live to see.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110530/hl_afp/healthaidsanniversaryelderly

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Yes, I exceeded the four-paragraph quotation rule. I did so for my cousin Peter, who died about seven hours ago from AIDS-related pneumonia. He was 51 years of age.

Thank you for sharing this article and sympathies to you and your family :hug:

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You DO deserve thanks. So many people never have someone apologize to them for being wrong. They carry their grudge too their grave or are to stuck on 'macho' to ever apologize even when they know they're wrong.

You did a great service to your brother and yourself so, yeah, thanks are in order.

So sorry for the loss of your cousin.

Curt was HIV positive when we started working together in Austin in 1983. I just received an invitation to a 20yr anniversary celebration (in California) for him and his partner. I haven't talked in depth to him about his health; I know he has taken a lot of medicine over the years.

Don't beat yourself up for something that happened a long time ago, what matters is how you treated him in his last stages of life.

As someone with AIDS, family & friends are very important, I am sad to say my family has not taken the road you have.

Go in peace.

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we can read it at the link.

thanks for posting this

I am so sorry about your cousin. I lost my brother at 48 from AIDS-related lymphoma, that was almost 10 years ago. It still hurts. :hug:

RIP Peter

I cared for a lot of guys when AIDS hit the scene in the 80's. I am seeing the next generation with the common diseases of middle age...compounded by their aids survival.
Thank you for loving your cousin unconditionally. i held too many patients' hands as they drew their last breath,alone...back in the day.

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i saw this 24 hours after it was posted and wasn't allowed to recommend.

I'm so sorry to hear about Peter. :hug: