CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Nineteen percent of all people with HIV/AIDS in the United States are age 50 and older, researchers say.
Diane Sublets, an associate professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, says the number reflects a combination of people age 50 and older who have been recently diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus, as well as people who have been living with the virus for decades.
A confluence of conditions has created an environment for HIV to flourish in a traditionally low-risk, and therefore overlooked, population.
"Historically when you looked at AIDS diagnoses people 50 and older accounted for 10 percent of all diagnoses," Sublets says in a statement.
Many older Americans come out of lengthy marriages or relationships and re-enter the dating scene and some are uneducated about HIV/AIDS or have antiquated views about the virus, Sublets says. Many age 50 and older never got sexual education while in school.
Zablotsky found that almost half of women age 50 and older are totally uninformed about HIV, compared with only 14 percent of younger adults.
