With HIV, growing older faster

[via the LA Times]

Many gained years of life through drug 'cocktails,' but the ailments of aging are showing up earlier.

Larry Gibson first spotted Dennis Golay outside West Hollywood's French Market Place. By the time he was halfway across Santa Monica Boulevard, he'd fallen in love.

It was Nov. 14, 1981 -- Golay's 34th birthday.

Seven years later, both men tested positive for the AIDS virus, an almost certain death sentence in the days before antiretroviral drugs. Having dreamed of growing old together, they were devastated.

"We had something so special," said Gibson, 63, looking back at that dark time. "To be cheated out of its maturity just didn't seem right."

"I guess it wasn't," said Golay, now a silver-haired 60. "We're still here."

Much attention has been paid in recent years to how the human immunodeficiency virus disproportionately infects African Americans and Latinos, including women, many of them poor. But the new reality of HIV is not just black or brown. It is also gray.

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