They performed for the first time evidence of HIV to elders in Nicaragua

managua, 16 mar (EFE).-the Nicaraguan authorities in coordination with non-governmental agencies today began testing the human immunodeficiency (HIV) virus to people over 60 years, for the first time in this country.

Coordinator of HIV prevention in the Nicaraguan Ministry of the family, Carmen Olivares, told reporters that such reviews practice them among elderly in order to “remove the myths that older adults do not have sex and Yes do not”.

Tests for HIV were made within the framework of a fair called “older adults are people with rights”, held this Friday in Managua.

“They (over 60) have the culture that having sex do not need protection, which makes them vulnerable to the epidemic of HIV”, he warned the officer.

According to Olivares, the elderly are considered to be immune to HIV and noted that while there is at present a low rate of the elderly with this epidemic in Nicaragua, “it is because it is not HIV test”.

The doctor of the clinic of integral attention to men of the non-governmental Centre for education and AIDS prevention (Cepresi), René Gutiérrez, told Efe that they proposed to carry out HIV tests to 400 people older than 60 years, of which accepted only 20 of them 12 women, and none were positive.

Specialist indicated that in the last year Cepresi has made 1,000 HIV testing to different populations, of which 10% are over 55 years of age and only a person, aged 58, was positive.

According to the Ministry of the family, one of the main obstacles to lift scientific evidence on the number of elderly people affected by this epidemic is the lack of perceived risk that that segment of the population about HIV has.

HIV-AIDS has been detected in 6.406 people in Nicaragua, and is considered a “problem for the development of the country”, according to the Government.

The presence of the virus, which mainly affects young people, housewives and construction workers, was detected for the first time in Nicaragua in 1987, and since then 887 people have died from the disease, according to agencies that work in the prevention of HIV. EFE