- Title: BOLIVIA/FILE: Bolivian seniors living with HIV receive free medical treatment
- Date: 29th November 2013
- Summary: LA PAZ, BOLIVIA (NOVEMBER 28, 2103) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF THE DIVINO MAESTRO HEALTH CENTRE HIV PATIENT, NANCY PAREDES GOING INTO THE HEALTH CENTRE VARIOUS OF THE HEALTH CENTRE PAREDES HUGGING THE DOCTOR WHO CARES FOR HER AT THE HEALTH CENTRE
- Embargoed: 14th December 2013 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Bolivia, Plurinational State Of
- Country: Bolivia
- Reuters ID: LVABGL82R80052GSZ2GL6SXCP8VQ
- Story Text: With free access to antiretroviral medications many Bolivian seniors living with HIV are being treated for their infection and living longer, healthier lives.
Though Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in the Americas, seniors with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, benefit from retirement programmes and free medical attention, at health centres like this one, allowing them easier access to lifesaving drugs compared to other, richer countries in the region.
Nancy Paredes, now 71-years-old, was 51 when she acquired the virus. HIV treatment has advanced substantially in the 20 years since she was infected and Paredes counts herself as lucky to be alive today.
"The fear is more difficult than the virus. The virus can be controlled," she said.
When Paredes was 60-years-old she became one of the first people in Bolivia to share her diagnoses on the public stage.
Today she is an activist trying to help seniors get access to much needed treatment.
She told Reuters many elderly HIV patients directly benefit from an agreement between the Bolivian government and Brazil which donates Brazilian-made generic HIV medications to its poorer neighbour.
"The United States charged for a patent for the antiretroviral (drugs) in India (and) Africa, and we couldn't pay it here. So Brazil made generic drugs, which are like copies of the medicine. I am alive thanks to the copies. Brazil donates them and the Bolivian government brings them and distributes them," Paredes said.
A United Nations report released in November documented the "ageing" of the HIV epidemic.
The UNAIDS report noted three reasons why HIV patients over 50-years-old are taking up a larger share of the population of people living with HIV throughout the world.
The three factors were: success of antiretroviral treatments which has led to longer life expectancies, a decrease of incidence of HIV in younger populations and the risk factors in older populations that have mostly been overlooked.
Maria Isabel Rivera works for a non-governmental agency called HelpAge International which aims to help older people around the globe "claim their rights, challenge discrimination and overcome poverty so that they can lead dignified, secure, active and health lives," the group's website says.
"As treatment with antiretrovirals has improved and they have been given to more people living with HIV, the treatments and the pandemic have gotten older along with the population. Nevertheless, despite the fact that they represent a large number of elderly people who live with HIV, they where and have been completely invisible," Rivera said.
In Latin America 15 percent of those living with HIV are over the age of 50, according to the UNAIDS report.
In North America and Western and Central Europe, where HIV treatment has been more widely available for a longer period of time, that number climbs to 33 percent.
But it is not just because people are living longer. The study also said an estimated 100,000 people over the age of 50 in low- and middle-income countries acquire HIV every year.
There is growing consensus that past research has overlooked sexual activity among older adults who also engage in behaviour that puts them at risk of coming in contact with the virus.
What's more, Rivera said, most programmes designed to combat the spread of the virus are not geared towards people 50+.
"Sexual health and reproductive programmes, by the same name, are aimed at the part of the population that is sexually active and at reproductive ages. Therefore, it is very improbable that someone who contracted HIV after 50 years of age would have access to a rapid (HIV) test or that they would do an HIV test because these very programmes were not planned for this population," said Rivera.
The UNAIDS report concluded that as the population of persons living with HIV continues to grow HIV responses should also shift to addressing their concerns as well as provide "appropriate prevention, testing and treatment services," for this group.
With free access to antiretroviral medications and health care to prevent opportunistic infections or other conditions that could have adverse affects on older HIV patients, including cardiovascular disease, kidney or liver failure and tuberculosis, Bolivia could serve as model for low- to middle-income countries. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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