Picture of Health: Baltimore HIV population is becoming increasingly older - Health care, wellness, food nutrition, exercise, medical research news from reporters who know the halls of the world's top hospital

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August 11, 2011

Baltimore HIV population is becoming increasingly older

People with HIV in Baltimore are aging.

A recent survey by the Greater Baltimore HIV Health Services Planning Council found that two-thirds of the HIV population were aged 45 to 64. The majority of the respondents were aged 25 to 44 the last time the survey was conducted in 2004.

There are about 18,000 people in the area with HIV or AIDS. The survey questioned 800 of them.

Researchers said the numbers show that drugs to treat the disease are allowing those infected to live longer lives.

The report also found that heterosexual sex is the main way the disease is being spread. For years, it was being spread mostly through intravenous drug use.

About 52.7 percent of those who responded were infected with HIV through heterosexual sex. About 22.8 percent were infected through drug use.

Posted by Andrea Walker at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: HIV/AIDS

Comments

I must say, I really thought homosexual sex would be the more common way HIV was spread, not heterosexual sex. Scary world.

Posted by: Kristine | August 11, 2011 1:17 PM

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About Picture of Health

Meredith Cohn has been a reporter since 1991, covering everything from politics and airlines to the environment and medicine. A runner since junior high and a particular eater for almost as long, she tries to keep up on health and fitness trends. Her aim is to bring you the latest news and information from the local and national medical and wellness communities.

Andrea K. Walker knows it’s weird to some people, but she has a fascination with fitness, diseases, medicine and other health-related topics. She subscribes to a variety of health and fitness magazines and becomes easily engrossed in the latest research in health and science. An exercise fanatic, she’s probably tried just about every fitness activity there is. Her favorites are running, yoga and kickboxing. So it is probably fitting that she has been assigned to cover the business of healthcare and to become a regular contributor to this blog. Andrea has been at The Sun for nearly 10 years, covering manufacturing, retail , airlines and small and minority business. She looks forward to telling readers about the latest health news.

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