Posted By Bethany Brown at 20:13, 23 January 2012

HelpAge USA is part of a network of 85 affiliates, advocating for older people's rights and delivering services with and for them in low- and middle-income countries around the world. We recently spoke with Voice of America`s television broadcast to Africa about older people and HIV/AIDS.

Even in 2012, people over 49 are not yet included in all prevalence data from UNAIDS. This exclusion from data collection means that prevention education is not targeted toward them. They have lower awareness about transmission and prevention because of this. This obviously leaves older people vulnerable to infection, but it is magnified by their family roles: In Sub-Saharan Africa, 40 percent of people living with HIV are cared for by older people, mostly older women. This leaves them at high risk for accidental infection.

UNAIDS has a goal of universal access to anti-retroviral treatments, which can only be achieved with attention to older people. Solutions include:

1. Access to prevention education so that they can train themselves, their peers, and the people they care for in their families, like their children and grandchildren.

2. Support for targeted national guidelines to address the needs and extreme poverty of older people caring for people with HIV/AIDS in their homes.

3. Recognition of older people's right to health, which has been highlighted at the UN, and the importance of their education and support as both an issue of equality and of development.

Tags for this post hiv and aids, africa, Africa, HIV/AIDS