According to the Wyoming Department of Health, the state is experiencing a rise in HIV infections, particularly for adults between the ages of 45 and 64.

“HIV and AIDS may not grab the headlines as much as they did 20 to 30 years ago, but they remain a very real threat and in fact our numbers are going up,” the department’s HIV prevention program manager, Robert Johnston, said in a release.

Unlike the abstinence-only movement for the nation’s schools, however, the department suggests that older adults should be informed about other ways to avoid infection.

“Safer sex messages are rarely targeted toward older adults,” Johnston said. “Many older people are sexually active but may not be practicing safer sex. Many do not use condoms and do not get tested for HIV.”

Older adults make up 19 percent of Wyoming residents living with the disease, and the average age of people enrolled in the state’s HIV treatment program is 45, according to the release. The oldest resident is 67. 

By 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that half of all cases of HIV in the United States will be in people over 50.

Johnston reminds homophobes and people living in total darkness that HIV is not a homosexual disease, and it can happen to anyone, even older people. For information on HIV testing sites around Wyoming, visit www.knowyo.org or call 307-777-5653. 

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