Older HIV-infected adults: complex patients-comorbidity (I).

Abstract

Life expectancy in people living with HIV has increased in the past decades, since the introduction of highly active antiretroviral treatment. Increased survival comes along with new challenges for the HIV physician, as these patients will present comorbidities inherent to ageing that can appear more frequently and at younger age than the general population. The older HIV patient poses a unique challenge, as management should take into account different factors, some related to global ageing such as geriatric syndromes, traditional risk factors, social vulnerability, and age-related diseases, and others related to HIV infection like ART toxicity, drug-drug interactions, immune dysregulation and chronic inflammation. All the above can amount to great polypharmacy and multimorbidity that physician have to be aware of. Little is known about the best screening, management and treatment strategies to improve long-term health outcomes in this ageing population. The following article briefly reviews the main comorbidities that can affect the ageing HIV patient.