Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). By damaging your immune system, HIV interferes with your body’s ability to fight infection and disease.

How HIV is transmitted:

HIV is transmitted via the exchange of body fluids—such as pre-ejaculate fluid, semen, vaginal fluid secretions, blood, or breast milk. Within these bodily fluids, HIV is present as both free virus particles and virus within infected immune cells.

The symptoms and when they develop:

Within a month or 2 of contracting HIV, about 40 to 90-percent of those afflicted suffer from flu-like symptoms including the following:

Fever, fatigue, achy muscles, swollen lymph glands, sore throat, headache, skin rash, dry cough, nausea, rapid weight loss, night sweats, frequent yeast infections (for women), cold sores, and eventually, pneumonia.

Symptoms

The symptoms of HIV and AIDS vary, depending on the phase of infection.

Primary infection (Acute HIV)

Some people infected by HIV develop a flu-like illness within two to four weeks after the virus enters the body. This illness, known as primary (acute) HIV infection, may last for a few weeks. Possible signs and symptoms include:

• Fever
• Headache
• Muscle aches and joint pain
• Rash
• Sore throat and painful mouth sores
• Swollen lymph glands, mainly on the neck
• Diarrhea
• Weight loss
• Cough
• Night sweats

These symptoms can be so mild that you might not even notice them. However, the amount of virus in your bloodstream (viral load) is quite high at this time. As a result, the infection spreads more easily during primary infection than during the next stage.

Clinical latent infection (Chronic HIV)

In this stage of infection, HIV is still present in the body and in white blood cells. However, many people may not have any symptoms or infections during this time.

This stage can last for many years if you’re not receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). Some people develop more severe disease much sooner.

Symptomatic HIV infection

As the virus continues to multiply and destroy your immune cells — the cells in your body that help fight off germs — you may develop mild infections or chronic signs and symptoms such as:

• Fever
• Fatigue
• Swollen lymph nodes — often one of the first signs of HIV infection
• Diarrhea
• Weight loss
• Oral yeast infection (thrush)
• Shingles (herpes zoster)
• Pneumonia

Progression to AIDS

Thanks to better antiviral treatments, most people with HIV in the U.S. today don’t develop AIDS. Untreated, HIV typically turns into AIDS in about 8 to 10 years.

When AIDS occurs, your immune system has been severely damaged. You’ll be more likely to develop opportunistic infections or opportunistic cancers — diseases that wouldn’t usually cause illness in a person with a healthy immune system.

The signs and symptoms of some of these infections may include:

• Sweats
• Chills
• Recurring fever
• Chronic diarrhea
• Swollen lymph glands
• Persistent white spots or unusual lesions on your tongue or in your mouth
• Persistent, unexplained fatigue
• Weakness
• Weight loss
• Skin rashes or bumps

When to see a doctor

If you think you may have been infected with HIV or are at risk of contracting the virus, see a doctor as soon as possible.

So what is the answer to prevent this from happening by doing a few things:

-In safe sex from the front (through the vagina) or back (through the rectum-buttock); no matter what sex preference you are.

-When you use various sex partners get checked every 6 months to a year and have sex safely.

-The + HIV pt or now AIDS pt be compliant with the medications and RX the M.D. gives you if you chose not to do so previously.

Unfortunately like many who chose to do unsafe sex in getting this or worse than that those who got the disease by getting it through someone else when they didn’t have it is a shame.  Other ways of transmitting HIV/AIDS or getting it is by getting a blood transfusions (which is rare) but seen more frequently than transfusions would be sharing needle sticks, or even sex partners who didn’t tell their sex partner they had it, which it the worst someone could do to someone else. There are the those who got this disease innocently with not doing unsafe sex but for that percentage it is much lower than those who caused this disease  to spread unsafe sex or sharing needles with others who had the HIV/AIDS which caused the amount to go up higher in the USA and all over for being foolish. To all the people in the world let’s deal with this disease safely for yourselves and others around you. Let us all make a safer world for this is one small way which is greater than you may think.

HIV is a sexually transmitted infection (STI). It can also be spread by contact with infected blood or from mother to child during pregnancy, childbirth or breast-feeding. Without medication, it may take years before HIV weakens your immune system to the point that you have AIDS.

There’s no cure for HIV/AIDS, but medications can dramatically slow the progression of the disease. These drugs have reduced AIDS deaths in many developed nations. Luckily, many individuals who are diagnosed early can live a long, productive life with HIV thanks to a combination of highly active anti-retroviral drug therapy, which prevents to progression to AIDS.

“National HIV Testing Day (NHTD) encourages HIV testing as a critical tool to help end the HIV epidemic in the United States. Observed annually on June 27, the 2024 NHTD theme is Level Up Your Self-Love: Check Your Status, emphasizing self-compassion, self-respect, and self-love in honoring health needs by getting an HIV test. When someone knows their HIV status, they can choose options to stay healthy.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2022, an estimated 1.2 million people in the United States had HIV, but 13 percent of people with HIV did not know their HIV status. HIV testing is the pathway to engage people in care and help them stay healthy, regardless of the test result. People who have a positive HIV test can start antiretroviral therapy (ART) to stay healthy. People who have a negative HIV test can learn how to access HIV prevention options like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). CDC recommends that everyone aged 13–64 get tested for HIV at least once as part of routine health care. People with certain risk factors—such as having sex with someone who has HIV, sharing needles or drug injection equipment, or being treated for another sexually transmitted infection (STI)—should be tested for HIV at least once per year.”

HIVinfo.NIH.gov (https://hivinfo.nih.gov/understanding-hiv/hiv-aids-awareness-days/national-hiv-testing-day)

Where does HIV/AIDS come from for staters?  Here is the history we have learned over the years about this virus:

Well the Aids Institute states “Scientists identified a type of chimpanzee in West Africa as the source of HIV infection in humans. They believe that the chimpanzee version of the immunodeficiency virus (called simian immunodeficiency virus or SIV) most likely was transmitted to humans and mutated into HIV when humans hunted these chimpanzees for meat and came into contact with their infected blood. Over decades, the virus slowly spread across Africa and later into other parts of the world.

The earliest known case of infection with HIV-1 in a human was detected in a blood sample collected in 1959 from a man in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (How he became infected is not known.) Genetic analysis of this blood sample suggested that HIV-1 may have stemmed from a single virus in the late 1940s or early 1950s.

We know that the virus has existed in the United States since at least the mid- to late 1970s. From 1979–1981 rare types of pneumonia, cancer, and other illnesses were being reported by doctors in Los Angeles and New York among a number of male patients who had sex with other men. These were conditions not usually found in people with healthy immune systems.

In 1982 public health officials began to use the term “acquired immunodeficiency syndrome,” or AIDS, to describe the occurrences of opportunistic infections, Kaposi’s sarcoma (a kind of cancer), and Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia in previously healthy people. Formal tracking (surveillance) of AIDS cases began that year in the United States.

What is the actual virus causing AIDS?

In 1983, scientists discovered the virus that causes AIDS. The virus was at first named HTLV-III/LAV (human T-cell lymphotropic virus-type III/lymphadenopathy-associated virus) by an international scientific committee. This name was later changed to HIV (human immunodeficiency virus).

For many years scientists theorized as to the origins of HIV and how it appeared in the human population, most believing that HIV originated in other primates. Then in 1999, an international team of researchers reported that they had discovered the origins of HIV-1, the predominant strain of HIV in the developed world. A subspecies of chimpanzees native to west equatorial Africa had been identified as the original source of the virus. The researchers believe that HIV-1 was introduced into the human population when hunters became exposed to infected blood.”

HIV is a lenti virus which is a subgroup of the retrovirus.

For starters HIV affects the white blood cells (WBCs) in this sense:

We have types of WBC’s and one type is called CD4. That is the cell the HIV binds to when it gets in your blood stream. Another name for them is T-helper cells. CD4 cells are made in the spleen, lymph nodes, and thymus gland, which are part of the lymph or infection-fighting system. CD4 cells move throughout your body, helping to identify and destroy germs such as bacteria and viruses.  Without going into specific medical terminology there is replication of this virus in the DNA and RNA killing out the normal white blood cell type of CD4 and other things like macrophages which are reproduced into CD4 cells with the virus with the body not knowing or able to detect this error in DNA and RNA of the CD4 white blood cells which ending line allows the immunity to go down. Remember the HIV virus binds to the surface of the CD4 cells. The virus entering CD4 cells now allows them to become a part of CD4 replicated cells regarding their make up due to changes made in the DNA and RNA cause the virus has invaded the bloodstream. As CD4 cells multiply to fight infection, they also make more copies of HIV now. Continuing to replicate, leading to a gradual decline of CD4 cells in decreasing that individuals immunity to infection.

The 2 types of HIV:

There are two types of HIV that have been characterized: HIV-1 and HIV-2.

HIV-1 is the virus that was initially discovered and termed both LAV and HTLV-III. It is more virulent, more infective and is the cause of the majority of HIV infections globally. The lower infectivity of HIV-2 compared to HIV-1 implies that fewer of those exposed to HIV-2 will be infected per exposure. Because of its relatively poor capacity for transmission, HIV-2 is largely confined to West Africa.

What is CD4 and how it helps the doctor:

The CD4 count measures the number of CD4 cells in a sample of your blood drawn by a needle from a vein in your arm. Along with other tests, the CD4 count helps tell how strong your immune system is. By knowing this when the blood test is done the CD4 helps the following, for the doctor:

-it indicates the stage of your HIV disease

-it guides the treatment

– it predicts how your disease may progress.

**Keeping your CD4 count high can reduce complications of HIV disease and extend your life.**

”Recent years have witnessed substantially increased research regarding sex differences in pain. The expansive body of literature in this area clearly suggests that men and women differ in their responses to pain, with increased pain sensitivity and risk for clinical pain commonly being observed among women. Also, differences in responsivity to pharmacological and non-pharmacological pain interventions have been observed; however, these effects are not always consistent and appear dependent on treatment type and characteristics of both the pain and the provider. Although the specific aetiological basis underlying these sex differences is unknown, it seems inevitable that multiple biological and psychosocial processes are contributing factors. For instance, emerging evidence suggests that genotype and endogenous opioid functioning play a causal role in these disparities, and considerable literature implicates sex hormones as factors influencing pain sensitivity. However, the specific modulatory effect of sex hormones on pain among men and women requires further exploration. Psychosocial processes such as pain coping and early-life exposure to stress may also explain sex differences in pain, in addition to stereotypical gender roles that may contribute to differences in pain expression.”

National Library of Medicine – NIH (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3690315/)

The nervous system’s dials for communicating chronic pain to the body work differently in male and female mice, according to a study published today in Nature Neuroscience. If this difference is also found in humans, it could lead to chronic pain treatments that are better tailored to the patient. But the most immediate impact might be in basic research — the earliest stages of work — since right now, the mice being used are almost exclusively male.

Chronic pain affects more than 100 million people in the US, which is more than heart disease, cancer, and diabetes combined. And many pain conditions occur more often in women than in men, according to the FDA. That’s why figuring out how male and female mice deal with pain — and whether they do so differently than humans — is so important. After all, most medical research — including pain research — starts with mice.

In the study, researchers focused on microglia, a type of immune cell that can be found in the brain and the spinal cord. These cells are known to play a role in the “volume knob” for pain, explains Jeffrey Mogil, a pain researcher at McGill University and a co-author of the study. The knob turns way up after an injury. A genetic study done in Mogil’s lab a few years ago had indicated that microglia weren’t as important in the pain circuit of female mice. So, the scientists decided to find out if interfering with the microglia would have the same effect in male and female mice.

Male mice had no pain, whereas female mice did

The researchers used mice that were suffering from a hypersensitivity to pain. The scientists gave them drugs that target the microglial cells in the spinal cord, in the hopes that this would prevent the animals from feeling pain. But only male mice responded to the drugs — the female mice still had an increased sensitivity to pain.

When the researchers repeated these experiments in mice under varying conditions, they saw the same results: male mice had no pain, whereas female mice did. “Whatever the manipulation is, in every case, blocking microglia or some part of the microglial system brings the pain sensitivity back to normal in male mice, and doesn’t do anything in female mice,” Mogil says.

Now looking at the human we see this: There is a growing body of literature that indicates women are more likely than men to be undertreated for their pain.

It appears that gender affects not only pain perception, pain coping, and pain reporting, but also pain-related behaviors, including use of healthcare and the social welfare system. It is also probable that men and women differ systematically in their responses to pain treatments, although further research is needed in this area.

For many common pain conditions, including migraine and tension-type headache, facial pain, and abdominal pain, population-based studies indicate higher prevalence rates in adult women than in adult men.

Despite the difficulties with human laboratory experiments on pain sensitivity, many investigators are willing to draw the inference from these studies that women are, in general, more sensitive to painful stimuli than men, and that this difference is biologically based.

Whatever the pain prevalence differences for men and women, most studies show that women seek healthcare for pain at a higher rate than men:

• • One study indicated that women are more likely to be given sedatives for their pain, while men are more likely to be given pain medication.

  • Faherty and Grier studied the administration of pain medication after abdominal surgery and found (after controlling for weight) that physicians prescribed less pain medication for women than for men ages 55 or older, and that nurses administered less pain medication to women than to men ages 25-54 years.

  • Beyer et al examined pain medication given to children and found that, after surgery, boys received significantly more codeine than girls, and girls were more likely than boys to be given acetaminophen.

  • In a 1994 study of 1,308 outpatients, Cleeland and colleagues found that women with metastatic cancer were significantly more likely than men with the same diagnosis to receive inadequate pain medications.

  • In a study of several hundred AIDS patients, Breitbart and colleagues found that, based on the WHO analgesic ladder guideline, women were significantly more likely than men to receive inadequate analgesic therapy.

  • A study by Weir and colleagues found that women are less likely than men to be referred to a specialty pain clinic, at least upon initial encounters with their physicians.

  • A study reviewing cancer care at seven outpatient clinics in California found that female cancer patients were prescribed half the pain medication as male patients with the same pain intensity scores.

  • Males outnumber females two to one in the burn population. This is related to male household and job roles, which increase the risk for burn injury. Furthermore, males more commonly engage in risk-taking behaviors involving chemicals, flammable materials, or electricity.So what do we see so for at this point:

• We feel pain more intensely than men, according to a new study of 11,000 men and women who were patients at the Stanford Hospital and Clinics.

• Researchers analyzed electronic medical records of patients’ reports of pain across a range of different diseases, and found a distinct gender-driven difference in how much discomfort patients say they felt. The study included 47 disorders — from cancer to back conditions and infectious diseases — and more than 161,000 patient-reported pain scores. The patients were all asked by nurses or other health personnel to rate their pain on an 11-point scale, with 0 representing “no pain” and 11 signifying the “worst pain imaginable”.

• Not surprisingly, most responses clustered around either the two extremes of very little pain or extreme pain or the middle score of 5. But overall, women were more likely to indicate higher pain levels than men, says lead author Dr. Atul Butte, chief of systems medicine in the department of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. And that was true across almost all of the different diseases. “That was the most surprising finding,” says Butte. “We completely wouldn’t have expected such a difference across almost all disorders, where women were reporting a whole pain point higher on the 0-to-10 scale than men.”

• Of course, self-reports can’t account for the fact that people may define tolerable and intolerable pain in vastly different ways, says Butte, but the fact that a gender difference emerged from such a large number of patients suggests that the effect is real.

• What accounts for the gender gap? Hormones may explain some of the difference — studies have shown that estrogen in women can help dampen the activity of pain receptors, helping them to tolerate higher levels of pain. That means, however, that they may become more sensitive to pain during low-estrogen parts of the menstrual cycle.

• There may also be explanations that have nothing to do with biology. Men, for example, may feel compelled by cultural stereotypes to be tough, and therefore report feeling less pain than they really do —especially when asked by the mostly female nursing staff.

Still, even if non-biological factors are influencing how much pain men and women report, Butte says the difference is worth noting. “The reasons may be biological or they may not be, but we should still be aware of the bias that patients have in reporting pain,” he says. He is hoping to continue the research by following up these results with surveys of patients’ ratings after they were treated for pain. That may help doctors to better address the real pain patients may be feeling.

Through the National Library of Medicine in 2022 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36038207/) They state; “Chronic pain affects 20% of adults and is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Women and girls are disproportionally affected by chronic pain. About half of chronic pain conditions are more common in women, with only 20% having a higher prevalence in men. There are also sex and gender differences in acute pain sensitivity. Pain is a subjective experience made up of sensory, cognitive, and emotional components. Consequently, there are multiple dimensions through which sex and gender can influence the pain experience. Historically, most preclinical pain research was conducted exclusively in male animals. However, recent studies that included females have revealed significant sex differences in the physiological mechanisms underlying pain, including sex specific involvement of different genes and proteins as well as distinct interactions between hormones and the immune system that influence the transmission of pain signals. Human neuroimaging has revealed sex and gender differences in the neural circuitry associated with pain, including sex specific brain alterations in chronic pain conditions. Clinical pain research suggests that gender can affect how an individual contextualizes and copes with pain. Gender may also influence the susceptibility to develop chronic pain. Sex and gender biases can impact how pain is perceived and treated clinically. Furthermore, the efficacy and side effects associated with different pain treatments can vary according to sex and gender. Therefore, preclinical and clinical research must include sex and gender analyses to understand basic mechanisms of pain and its relief, and to develop personalized pain treatment.”.

“CDC states the following:

• Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of inherited blood disorders. Abnormal hemoglobin is produced.
• Red blood cells become hard and sticky and get stuck in small blood vessels, resulting in pain and other serious complications.
• There are several types of SCD, some more severe than others.
• In the United States, SCD is often found at birth through routine newborn screening.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects about 100,000 people in the United States; more than 90% are non-Hispanic Black or African American, and an estimated 3%–9% are Hispanic or Latino.

The estimated life expectancy of those with SCD in the United States is more than 20 years shorter than the average expected.

Many people with SCD unfortunately do not receive the recommended healthcare screenings and treatments.”

Center for Disease Control and Prevention – CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/sickle-cell/data/index.html)

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September is National Sickle Cell Awareness Month, a time to recognize the perseverance of patients living with sickle cell disease (SCD) and to recommit ourselves to improving the quality of life and health outcomes for all individuals living with SCD.

Mount Sinai Health System is reminding the community of the importance of newborn screening performed soon after birth with a blood test, education for families with this inherited condition and comprehensive care for children and adults including regular visits with a specialist can reduce complications of this illness.

SCD is the most commonly inherited blood disorder in the United States, affecting 100,000 people, and millions more worldwide. The disease primarily affects people of African, Hispanic, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and South Asian ancestry.

What is sickle cell disease (SCD) actually?

The term sickle cell disease (SCD) describes a group of inherited red blood cell disorders. People with SCD have abnormal hemoglobin, called hemoglobin S or sickle hemoglobin, in their red blood cells.

Hemoglobin is a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout the body.

“Inherited” means that the disease is passed by genes from parents to their children. SCD is not contagious. A person cannot catch it, like a cold or infection, from someone else.

People who have SCD inherit two abnormal hemoglobin genes, one from each parent. In all forms of SCD, at least one of the two abnormal genes causes a person’s body to make hemoglobin S. When a person has two hemoglobin S genes, Hemoglobin SS, the disease is called sickle cell anemia. This is the most common and often most severe kind of SCD.

Hemoglobin SC disease and hemoglobin Sβ thalassemia (thal-uh-SEE-me-uh) are two other common forms of SCD.

Cells in tissues need a steady supply of oxygen to work well. Normally, hemoglobin in red blood cells takes up oxygen in the lungs and carries it to all the tissues of the body.

Red blood cells that contain normal hemoglobin are disc shaped (like a doughnut without a hole). This shape allows the cells to be flexible so that they can move through large and small blood vessels to deliver oxygen.

Sickle hemoglobin is not like normal hemoglobin. It can form stiff rods within the red cell, changing it into a crescent, or sickle shape.

Sickle-shaped cells are not flexible and can stick to vessel walls, causing a blockage that slows or stops the flow of blood. When this happens, oxygen can’t reach nearby tissues.

The lack of tissue oxygen can cause attacks of sudden, severe pain, called pain crisis. These pain attacks can occur without warning, and a person often needs to go to the hospital for effective treatment.

Most children with SCD are pain free between painful crises, but adolescents and adults may also suffer with chronic ongoing pain.

The red cell sickling and poor oxygen delivery can also cause organ damage. Over a lifetime, SCD can harm a person’s spleen, brain, eyes, lungs, liver, heart, kidneys, penis, joints, bones, or skin.

Sickle cells can’t change shape easily, so they tend to burst apart or hemolyze. Normal red blood cells live about 90 to 120 days, but sickle cells last only 10 to 20 days.

The body is always making new red blood cells to replace the old cells; however, in SCD the body may have trouble keeping up with how fast the cells are being destroyed. Because of this, the number of red blood cells is usually lower than normal. This condition, called anemia, can make a person have less energy.  Anemia ending line is lack of oxygen to the tissue body parts all over.

“Sickle cell disease is devastating for patients and their families,” said Jeffrey Glassberg, MD, MA, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “It’s a chronic disorder causing pain in the extremities and back, infections, organ failure and other tissue damage, skin infections, loss of eyesight, severe blood clots and strokes. Patients learn to function in a constant state of pain and when that pain becomes debilitating, they often end up in the emergency room,” said Dr. Glassberg, also Associate Director of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Program at The Mount Sinai Hospital.

“Patients with SCD are more likely to live full lives if they undergo regular checkups, prevent infections and develop healthy habits,” said Jena Simon, MS, FNP-BC, RN, also of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Program.

Tips to Staying Healthy for SCD patients:

• Get regular checkups. Regular health checkups can help prevent some serious problems.
• Prevent infections. Common illnesses, like influenza quickly can become dangerous for both children and adults with SCD. The best defense is to get a flu shot every fall and to stay up-to-date on other immunizations.
• People with SCD should drink 8 to 10 glasses of water every day and eat healthy food. They also should try not to get too hot, too cold, or too tired.
• Look for clinical studies. New clinical research studies are beginning all the time at Mount Sinai and elsewhere, with the goal of finding better treatments for SCD. Study participants gain early access to experimental medicines and treatments.
• Get support. People with SCD should find a patient support group or other organization in the community that can provide information, assistance, and support.

Sickle Cell Disease Facts & Figures:

• SCD is an inherited blood disorder that can cause severe pain and permanent damage to the brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, bones and spleen.
• SCD is most common in Africans and African-Americans. It is also found in other ethnic and racial groups, including people from South and Central America, the Caribbean, Mediterranean countries, and India.
• More than 2 million people carry the sickle cell gene that allows them potentially to pass the disease on to their children. People of African, Hispanic, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Indian descent may want to be tested for the gene before having children. You can carry the gene and not have any signs or symptoms of SCD. Both parents have to have the gene to have a child with SCD.

DIAGNOSIS & TREATMENT for SCD:

Minnesota Department of Health states the following about treatment:

“Sickle cell disease is usually diagnosed at birth through a blood spot test, which is part of the Newborn Screening Program. A blood test can also be performed at any time for those not screened at birth.

Treatment can help relieve symptoms and complications of SCD, which vary and can range from mild to severe. Treatment will be different for each person based on what symptoms they have. The goals of treating SCD are to prevent and relieve SCD complications, including pain, infections, organ damage, and strokes. Treatments can include:

• Receiving blood transfusions
• Drinking lots of water (8 to 10 glasses of water each day)
• Receiving IV (intravenous) therapy (fluids given into a vein)
• Taking pain relievers
• Taking an FDA-approved medication, such as hydroxyurea, crizalizumah, L-glutamine, or voxeletor

Currently, the only known cure for SCD is a blood or marrow transplant (BMT). A blood or marrow transplant is a procedure that takes healthy stem cells from a donor and puts them into someone else. These healthy stem cells cause the bone marrow to make new cells that are not in the sickle shape. Many people do well after a BMT and experience significant improvement in their quality of life. However, there are risks associated with transplants. Discuss eligibility for transplant and associated risks and benefits with a transplant doctor.”.

Having several health topics and one of those topics covers awareness on elder’s well being. Why some may even not realizing how significantly important this is to address in thinking should this even be addressed?

Obviously, YES is the answer to anyone in this world who thinks that question and here is the reason why. This was developed in 1963 for the purpose of professional development opportunities for community, hospital and residential services. Its focus is on those resources that are specifically concerned with older people’s mental health and wellbeing and those resources that are generally accessible on a statewide basis. The government even is involved that developed a program called a “Wellbeing in Later Life” with one major aspect on covering 1.)the understanding of anxiety and depression 2.) strategies to help manage core symptoms 3.)practical skills to practice each week to help recovery 4.) stories about how others have applied the skills to help them recover; which is one small area of what this covers with much more.

Regarding the global trend in particular on elders with health promoting their age it is predicted the amount of elders is considerably increasing from decades back.

With facts check this out:

The global population is ageing at a rapid rate. In 1950, just over five percent of the world’s population was 65 years or older. By 2006, that number had jumped to eight percent. By 2030, experts anticipate that older adults will comprise 13 percent of the total population—one in eight people will be 65 or older. While developing countries will experience the most rapid growth in ageing, with increases of up to 140 percent, developed countries will experience increases averaging 51 percent. (Women, who tend to outlive men, will comprise the bulk of the older adult population.) Simultaneously, overall population is declining in many countries due to low fertility rates, HIV/AIDS, and international migration. The United Nations estimates that the number of adults 60 years and older will outnumber children under the age of 15—an historical first—by 2045.

Not only is the world ageing, but it is also ageing differently. Life expectancy is increasing, with people 85 years and older—especially women—comprising the fa stest growing segment of the population in many countries. Notable exceptions include South Africa, where life expectancy dropped from 60 to 43 years in the last decade, primarily due to HIV/AIDS. Globally, more people are dying from non-communicable diseases and chronic, degenerative conditions than from infectious and parasitic diseases, a trend expected to grow in the next couple of decades. (Whether increased life expectancy will be associated with increases or decreases in disability status remains an open question.) At the same time, communicable diseases—especially HIV/AIDS—remain prevalent, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. In considering the benefits and consequences of population ageing, therefore, it is essential to consider not only longevity but also healthy life expectancy, or expected years of life free of illness, disease, and disability.

Looking at older adults (elders 65 and older)-Although older adults serve as essential resources to their communities, they face a great risk of marginalization. Older adults often experience both social de-evaluation and poverty upon leaving the labor market; financial market fluctuations contribute to income and social insecurity regardless of employment history, especially in countries with developing and transitioning economies. Groups particularly vulnerable to poverty and social devaluation in old age, due to cultural and institutional biases which affect people throughout the lifespan, include women, people with disabilities, people with a migration background, and people who do not belong to the majority racial or ethnic group of any given society. Moreover, older adults seeking support to maintain independence and quality of life frequently encounter either a lack of social services, especially in rural and remote areas, or services that are poor in quality or unresponsive to linguistic and cultural diversity.

Participation of older adults in societal development enhances the well-being both of older adults and of communities as a whole and depends on multiple factors.

Accordingly, the rising proportion of older people is placing upward concerns & pressure on overall health care spending in the developed world, although other factors such as income growth and advances in the technological capabilities of medicine generally play a much larger role.

Relatively little is known about aging and health care costs in the developing world. Many developing nations are just now establishing baseline estimates of the prevalence and incidence of various diseases and conditions. Initial findings from the WHO SAGE project, which provides data on blood pressure among women in six developing countries, show an upward trend by age in the percentage of women with moderate or severe hypertension, although the patterns and age-specific levels of hypertension vary among the countries. If rising hypertension rates in those populations are not adequately addressed, the resulting high rates of cerebrovascular (CVA-stroke) and cardiovascular disease are likely to require costly medical treatments that might have been avoided with antihypertensive therapies costing just a few cents per day per patient. Early detection and effective management of risk factors such as hypertension—and other important conditions such as diabetes, which can greatly complicate the treatment of cardiovascular disease—in developing countries can be inexpensive and effective ways of controlling future health care costs.

In high-income countries, heart disease, stroke, and cancer have long been the leading contributors to the overall disease burden. The burden from these and other chronic and non-communicable diseases is increasing in middle- and low-income countries as well.

To gauge the economic impact of shifting disease profiles in developing countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated the loss of economic output associated with chronic disease in 23 low- and middle-income nations, which together account for about 80 percent of the total chronic disease mortality in the developing world.

Largely because of global aging, the incidence of cancer is expected to accelerate in coming decades. The annual number of new cancer cases is projected to rise to 17 million by 2020, and reach 27 million by 2030. A growing proportion of the global total will be found in the less developed world, and by 2020, almost half of the world’s new cases will occur in Asia.

So regarding anyone who may have questioned today or at another time why is elder health important I think after reading this you would see why. The more unhealthy an elder person is in large populations the higher the population of unhealthy elders will be in society besides putting the cost of health living in communities higher. So if people stay healthy from childhood to geriatric age the less health problems we will have. National elder well being is a prime concern to be addressed and dealt with just like neonate, pediatric and adult to mid adult.  Every age in important and every age bracket has rights with vitally importance to address in there health!