A man in Britain who discovered he tested HIV+ while undergoing treatment for appendicitis has said he never feared the disease as HIV is a “young person’s illness.”
The Daily Mail reports that the patient, identified only as “Ashley,” said he never used condoms as he only had sex with older women, who cannot get pregnant.
“Over-50s, people who’ve come out of divorce, or marriage, they think they’re safe,” Ashley said in a BBC interview. “Because nobody can get pregnant anymore, ‘there’s no danger.’ Because ‘those illnesses are for young people.’ But they’re not, they’re for everybody.”
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Ashley had gone to the hospital with a case of shingles and symptoms of appendicitis. Doctors there performed a perfunctory blood test, which revealed his HIV diagnosis. The test also helped doctors determine that the shingles and appendicitis resulted from complications from HIV; Ashley has been HIV+ for some time, and suffered serious immune damage.
“I didn’t mind being HIV positive. But it was just that delay – that they didn’t find it. It was so long… and the damage done to my body – I’m a little bit bitter about,” he said.
British healthcare experts and HIV charities caution that new cases of the disease in people over 50 often go undetected. Patients often wrongly believe, as Ashley did, that HIV afflicts only young people, or that only gay men are at risk. Studies suggest that about 60% of people who contract HIV later in life will also have a late diagnosis after the disease has already caused the body permanent complications.
Smith David
“I didn’t mind being HIV positive. But it was just that delay –
What a very odd thing to say.
Cam
The thing is, he could have caught it in his 30s and just not known it maybe.
DonW
Living 20 years with untreated HIV? Not likely. It’s about 90% fatal with the average person dying within 8-10 years.
JamJewel
DonW: Not necessarily: I was diagnosed in 1986 – in the bad ol’ days – and didn’t start treatment until 1996 when my ‘Ts’ fell below 600. It’s all about an individual’s metabolism and changing your life style – no hard drugs, proper diets. Same with diabetes: I’m type-1 since 2003 but have never been on insulin because I’ve managed it with the proper diet.
Doug
I think this guy is in the minority. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t recognize that transmitting HIV has nothing to do with age.
cliche guevara
Well, he was having unprotected sex (with multiple partners by the sound of it) so there was at least one other person that had a similar thought process.
frankcar1965
I was diagnosed and it was near twenty years since I could have been infected, with no symptoms until the very end. They can tell by your viral load my doc said, she also said it certainly can take that long too, usually it is earlier, but not in my case.
Poncho Sanchez
Its unusual for HIV to transfer from women to man unless the man has open soars or lesions on his penis……hmmm….
cliche guevara
Well, if he was having unprotected sex then it’s really much of a stretch to think he had something else that causes open sores.
balttymore
soooo how many women did he infect? Since he was poz for a while and never used condoms…. I assume he had a high viral load
frankcar1965
Straights NEVER use condoms they bareback their brains out, but gays that do it on PreP get grief for it.
Kangol2
Another point in all of this is that he clearly had not been to the doctor for a check up in a while. In the US where healthcare is often unaffordable for many people I could understand that as an excuse, but Britain has the NHS, and a basic checkup is not expensive at all, so why didn’t he just get an annual or even biannual physical, which often will include a blood and urine test? His physician could have detected the HIV in his system much sooner and put him on a treatment regimen much earlier.
Invader7
If you’re having sex in 2020 you can get a lot of different STI’s including HIV!!