CHALLENGES IN THE DIAGNOSIS AND CONTROL OF HIV/AIDS IN THE ELDERLY - An INTEGRATIVE LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

Introduction: the elderly are increasingly sexually active due to the quality of life, which over the years has been improving, so it is necessary to provide guidelines for the prevention of sexually transmitted infections and reduce the vulnerability of this population. Objectives: To identify scientific evidence on the challenges encountered when it comes to the diagnosis and control of HIV/AIDS in the elderly and to discuss forms of intervention. Methodology: this is an integrative literature review based on 8 articles, in English, Portuguese and Spanish, whose search was performed on the LILACS, BDENF and MEDLINE platforms. In the search strategy, terms obtained from DeCS and MESH and synonyms combined with Boolean operators (AND, OR) were used. Results: the selected articles showed that the challenges in the diagnosis and control of HIV/AIDS in the elderly are mainly due to the taboo when talking about sexuality, opportunistic diseases in the aging process and few campaigns to prevent sexually transmitted infections aimed at the third -age. Conclusion: there is a need for qualification of health professionals, especially nurses, so that they can act in a centered way when talking to patients about the diagnosis and what it will be like to live with the disease and, especially, when talking about sexuality in the third age. As well, it is important to create campaigns and public policies against STIs aimed at this population.