The world's most distinguished scientists, community leaders and policy specialists convened in Durban, South Africa in July for the XIII International AIDS Conference. In 1998, AIDS replaced tuberculosis as being the world's deadliest infectious disease. AIDS has been particularly devastating in Africa, with nearly 85% of all of the world's AIDS-related deaths occurring in this region. In the closing session of the conference, Nelson Mandela stated that HIV/AIDS is having a devastating impact on families, communities, societies and economies: "Decades have been chopped from life expectancy and young child mortality is expected to double in the most severely affected countries of Africa. AIDS is clearly a disaster, effectively wiping out the development gains of the past decades and sabotaging the future."
AIDS is becoming an issue in the elderly population. People age 50 and older currently represent more than 10% of AIDS cases in the United States alone. In the upcoming September issue of Geriatrics & Aging, Dr. Brian Conway, one of the first Canadians to work in the field of retrovirology, and a reviewer for the Medical Research Council of Canada and the National Institutes of Health in virology, will bring you up to date on the latest medical information on HIV in the elderly.
