Senior Citizens Get Free Condoms

[The Straight Story]

Senior Citizens Get Free Condoms
HIV, AIDS Don't Discriminate By Age, Experts Say


NEW YORK -- While volunteers passed out cups of Jell-O to the white-haired lunch crowd at a senior center, another group was distributing something that didn't quite fit amid the card games and daily gossip: condoms.

"You're giving out condoms," 82-year-old Rose Crescenzo said with a wistful smile, "but who's going to give us a guy?"

But this was no joke.

The condom giveaway is part of an effort by New York City's Department of Aging to educate older people about the risks of contracting the virus that causes AIDS. After the condom giveaway, free HIV testing was offered.

http://www.local6.com/spotlight/13761152/detail.html

[babylonsister]

1. I kid you not...

though I really resent them calling 50+ elderly! x(



HIV/AIDS and the elderly
By Makebra Anderson
Updated May 24, 2005


WASHINGTON (NNPA) - While much of the public’s attention is focused on young people contracting almost half of all new HIV and AIDS cases, there’s a growing HIV/AIDS problem developing among the elderly, a problem that will only grow worse as baby boomers reach retirement.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were 1,039,987 reported AIDS cases in 2003 of which, 315,509 (30 percent) were in people over 45. In 1999, the CDC reports that there were 11,056 reported AIDS cases in people 45 and older. In 2001, an estimated 12,176 people over 45 were living with AIDS and in 2003, approximately 13,825.

People of color are still disproportionately affected. Fifty-two percent of older Americans living with HIV/AIDS are either Black or Hispanic, reports the CDC. Among men over 50 living with HIV and AIDS, 49 percent are of color. Among women, 70 percent are of color.

The continued increase in HIV among those over 50 can also be attributed to their living longer, thanks to advanced HIV therapy. According to Bill Rydwels, a 73-year-old man who has been living with HIV for 20 years, who works with the Chicago Forum on HIV and Aging, the perception that people over 50 aren’t sexually active is one of the leading causes of high rates of HIV and AIDS among this group.

“People over 50 come from a generation where the discussion of sex was an under-the-table thing,” he said. “Nobody wants to discuss the sexual habits of older people. It’s the concept that older people stop having sex, and it’s just not a reality.”

more...

[Quantess]

2. But, what about teaching them abstinence-only?

:rofl: