HIV after 40 in Rural South Africa: Aging in the Context of an HIV Epidemic

South Africa has the largest number of people living with HIV in the world and a rapidly aging population. In recent years, with expanded availability of anti-retroviral treatment (ART), many adults are aging with HIV, and further, increasing numbers are acquiring HIV at older ages. Despite these population concerns, research on the causes and consequences of the HIV epidemic on older South Africans is limited. The overall goal of HIV after 40 (HIV40) is to examine life course and contextual variation in HIV risk and protective behaviors in a rural sub-Saharan African population among a largely neglected demographic in HIV research: adults aged 40-80.