A 65-year-old man with diarrhea and fever, diagnosed with AIDS, often dances square dance with his 'girlfriend'

Lao Li was lying on the hospital bed crying silently, listening to the quarrels of the children outside the ward. They were shirking their responsibilities. No one was willing to take care of Lao Li, and the matter had to start from the frequent diarrhea that started a week ago.

65-year-old Lao Li started to have frequent diarrhea a week ago. He had to pull seven or eight times a day, and he had a fever every day. The eldest daughter, Xiao Li, was afraid that the old man could not survive like this, so she hurriedly took Lao Li to the hospital to hang up the emergency number.

The whole family thought that Lao Li had acute gastroenteritis, but after a round of examinations, the blood transfusion department called. The general meaning is that Lao Li's HIV initial screening was positive , and the patient needs to complete the information and send it to the CDC for re-examination.

Soon, the CDC sent the re-examination results, which turned out to be HIV-positive, and Lao Li became an AIDS-infected person .

It turned out that since his wife passed away due to illness two years ago, Lao Li has lived alone for a long time. Usually, his sons and daughters are working hard outside for their careers, and they rarely call him.

In a square dance competition, the neighbor wanted to invite him to participate because he was bored. One after another, a widow and a widower danced and danced to bed. At that time, Lao Li thought that there would be no risk of pregnancy if he was older, so he did not wear a condom.

At this time, Lao Li's three children felt ashamed and disgraced, and they shied the responsibility from each other. They heard that they could be infected with AIDS, and none of them took the initiative to take care of the elderly.

1. Rising "senior AIDS"

Many people may think that when people are old, there is basically no possibility of developing AIDS. After all, this kind of behavior seems to be "disrespectful" and "humiliating".

However, according to data revealed by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2019, the rise in the elderly HIV-infected far outpaced the rise in the elderly population. In recent years, the number of reported cases of infection, especially among men over 60, rose from 8,391 in 2012 to 24,465 in 2018.

The reason for the increasing number of elderly people with AIDS is partly because the cancer-infected patients in those years are getting older, and more importantly, because of the increase in newly reported cases.

More and more elderly AIDS patients are inseparable from these reasons:

1. Commercial behavior

An epidemiological survey of cases in Zhejiang Province found that more than two-thirds of male elderly cases were infected through commercial sexual behaviors , which generally have no effective protection and are at very high risk of HIV infection.

2. Failing to take safety measures

Condoms are a line of defense against HIV, and older people use less condoms when having sex due to lack of sexual knowledge or lack of reproductive burden.

3. Low resistance, more susceptible to infection

With the aging process of the elderly, the immune function of the body will also decline, and the female menopause will also cause the vagina to become thinner and dry. During the process of intercourse, it is easy to damage and increase the risk of viral infection.

2. Recognize AIDS symptoms and treat as soon as possible

Due to the particularity of the elderly, the elderly with AIDS has a higher mortality rate. AIDS patients are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease, cancer, etc., which is also the main cause of death for infected people.

In addition, due to the lack of awareness of AIDS prevention and treatment among the elderly and the easy misdiagnosis of symptoms, it is easy to ignore the symptoms of AIDS.

According to Luo Ling, Department of Infectious Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, HIV generally has three stages after entering the human body:

1. Acute infection period

Occurs 2-4 weeks after the initial infection, and the infected person may have fever , sore throat, rash and other symptoms;

2. Asymptomatic period

At this stage, the virus is latent, and infected people generally have no symptoms;

3. AIDS period

Manifested as various opportunistic infections and tumors, with diverse clinical symptoms. Such as increased diarrhea, weight loss, oral leukoplakia, herpes zoster , etc.

3. There is also a "regret medicine" for HIV infection!

At present, there is no cure for AIDS, but there is a "regret medicine" that can effectively avoid persistent HIV infection.

HIV blocking drugs refer to post-exposure prophylaxis drugs, usually referring to drugs used to prevent the spread of the virus after high-risk behaviors, and have a high success rate . So what is high-risk behavior? Including the following:

• People with AIDS or HIV have unsafe sex;
• An open wound or mucosal tissue comes into contact with the blood of an AIDS patient or HIV-infected person;
• Being stabbed by a needle containing blood from an AIDS patient or HIV-infected patient, etc.

High-risk exposure is high, and the earlier the blocking drug is taken, the better the effect. The best blocking time is 2 hours, and the blocking success rate can reach 99.5% . The success rate decreased over time, but within 72 hours, there was still a high success rate .

Therefore, after the occurrence of high-risk behaviors, you should go to infectious disease hospitals or emergency departments in various places as soon as possible, do relevant inspections and risk assessments, and use blocking drugs to save them.

It is not a shameful thing for the elderly to have sex. As long as they do not violate morality and laws, they also have the right to pursue their desires, but this is based on the premise of safety and health.

It is precisely because of some discriminatory views in the society that the elderly are ashamed to talk about sex, and they dare not take the initiative to seek medical advice after high-risk behaviors, which eventually led to the occurrence of tragedies.

References:

[1] "Is there no sex life when I'm old? If you think about it again, there will only be more and more elderly people with AIDS". Nutshell. 2020-01-19

[2] "Xiehe experts say AIDS: 10 hot questions about AIDS that netizens are most concerned about". Tencent Medical Code. 2019-12-01

[3] "Beware! National Health Commission: About 3,000 students are infected with AIDS every year". Central Committee of the Communist Youth League. 2019-08-01

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