In the 1980′s, growing old with HIV seemed like a fairytale, and the immediate goal of all HIV/AIDS research was to extend the lives of patients. However, with today’s antiretrovirals and other treatments, over half the HIV-infected population in the United States is over forty years old. It’s good news that those with this condition are living longer. However, the quality of life lived is compromised by the effects of HIV/AIDS. It is becoming apparent that accelerated aging with HIV can, in effect, add over ten years to the actual age of the patient. In 2010, this subject was address by multiple experts in RITA, a publication of The Center for AIDS Information and Advocacy. It appears that there is a stair-step effect from physical problems to emotional and cognitive problems.

Individuals infected with HIV have a higher risk for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, broken bones, and other illnesses. This physical health risk can prevent what seems like a lifelong obstacle course laid out before patients who are dealing with physical issues that should be a decade or more away. With one challenge arising after another, discouragement, depression, and anxiety can diminish hardiness. Hardiness is basically the perception that difficulties are challenges to be fought rather than overwhelming obstacles which stop you in your tracks. Accelerated aging with HIV moves from physical to emotional and cognitive with the decline of hardiness.

Emotional and cognitive aging are entwined in the accelerated aging with HIV. Patients may find themselves forgetting things often or having to think through the steps to complete a task over again. One possible reason for this is a lack of healthy sleep patterns. Healthy sleep amounts and routines promote cognitive processing. Depression and anxiety, as well as sickness, undermine the ability to sleep, exacerbating cognitive problems. Fatigue, lack of social and/or cognitive stimulation can also contribute to the neurocognitive aging effect of HIV.

However, each person’s progress must be measured individually because a 50-year-old who has the heart of a 65-year-old is not necessarily infected with HIV. Other factors, such as smoking, drinking alcohol, using recreational drugs, excessive weight, a sedentary lifestyle, and genetics also play a large part in aging both physically and mentally. These factors will also have an effect on the accelerated aging with HIV that infected patients experience. Experts recommend improve the overall lifestyle health, social interaction, and cognitive stimulation to combat the aging effects while scientists search for new ways to find a complete cure for HIV/AIDS.

Human papillomavirus, or HPV, is the most common sexually transmitted disease worldwide. Over six million new infections occur each year, and the incidence of the disease can lead to cancer in both women and men. Papillomavirus infection in HIV-infected individuals is a very common condition and one that can create additional health issues in an already ill patient. Men who have sex with men develop the infection most commonly in the anus, which can lead to anal cancer, while women are frequently infected in the vaginal area and can develop cervical cancer as a result of the virus.

Human papillomavirus vaccinations were introduced in 2006 and were approved by the FDA in 2009. While these vaccinations were originally intended for young women as a way to help fight against not only HPV but against cervical cancer as well, it is now recommended that males receive the vaccination as well since the disease is highly prevalent in men and can lead to numerous other more serious diseases. Men who have sex with men are especially at risk of developing HPV and diagnosis can be difficult due their reluctance to admit to homosexual behavior. Papillomavirus infection in HIV-infected individuals can be serious issue and one that must be addressed if not prevented outright.

Pap smears are commonly used to help identify Papillomavirus infection in HIV-infected individuals and in those who aren’t infected with HIV. This method is commonly used to diagnose the issue in women who are carrying the disease, but HIV infected men as well as women are recommended to undergo an anal pap smear on a regular basis in order to ensure that HPV is not present. Certain risk factors may be identified, in which case a test known as an anuscopy should be undergone to confirm the existence of the virus. Biopsies are normally taken to help determine whether or not any lesions or polyps are indeed cancerous, in which case further steps may need to be taken.

Papillomavirus infection in HIV-infected individuals may present itself orally as well as around the genitals or anus, and any sign should be taken seriously. While standard guidelines concerning HPV diagnosis and treatment in men and women are still being developed, there is no doubt that the issue is one that necessitates concern and action. With its linkage to serious types of cancer and the added stress it can create in an HIV infected patient, preventing, diagnosing, and treating HPV is of the utmost importance in any situation.