KCBS Cover Story: Growing Old With AIDS
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)- People who contracted HIV when the epidemic began almost 30 years ago never imagined using the words "AIDS" and "old age" in the same sentence. But on Wednesday, World AIDS Day, the combination of those two things poses new challenges for people with HIV, and their doctors.
KCBS' Doug Sovern Reports:
John Clark, 53, comes to Ward 86, the legendary AIDS clinic at San Francisco General Hospital, to see his doctor. He's been HIV positive since 1988, and he never dared hope he would still be coming here 22 years later.
"Back then it was so bad and I was losing so many friends," said Clark. "You just didn't know. Nobody knew."
Clark was once so sick, he almost died. But now, he manages his HIV with twice-daily medication.
"At this point it's kind of just a day to day thing as far as taking the meds, exercise, rest," said Clark. "It's the basics, just like anybody."
Dr. Brad Hare, the director of the clinic, said an HIV diagnosis isn't the death sentence it once was, and that can be difficult for some people to accept.
"What I tell my patients when they're diagnosed is that they have to plan for retirement, they have to plan to be an old person, and for this aging process to occur because we expect it in people with HIV," said Hare.
More than 100,000 Californians are living with HIV, and about ten percent of them are over 50.
"There are a lot of complex challenges that these patients are facing as aging occurs," said Hare.
Dr. Malcolm John, who directs 360, the Positive Care Center at UCSF said that he finds that people with HIV suffer the same problems as other aging patients, including heart trouble and liver disease, but at an accelerated pace.
"We all started hearing from our patients concerns about their cognition, memory, and it seemed to be a little out of proportion from their HIV-negative peers," said John.
Now UC's California HIV/AIDS Research Program is granting more than $6 million to five AIDS centers, including this one, to study how to improve and integrate care, especially for these older patients.
Clark, still shakes his head in wonder, at the notion that he got AIDS in the 1980s, and he's reached middle age.
"You can fight it, and live with it," said Clark.
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