New York City hands out condoms to seniors

NEW YORK (AP) - As volunteers in hairnets served Styrofoam cups of Jell-O to the lunch crowd at a senior center in Queens, another group of volunteers was distributing something that didn't quite fit in amid the card games and daily gossip: condoms.
"You're giving out condoms," said a wistful Rose Crescenzo, 82, "but who's going to give us a guy?"
But this was no joke. The condom giveaway is part of an effort by the New York City Department of Aging to educate older people about the risks they may face of contracting the virus that causes AIDS. After the condom giveaway, free HIV testing was offered.
AIDS education of the elderly has become an important issue as antiretroviral drugs that can keep patients living into their golden years changes the face of AIDS. Experts warn that ignorance about HIV among seniors can lead to new infections.
And those infections are happening. A physician from Howard University Hospital in Washington recently diagnosed unsuspected HIV in an 82-year-old.
So HIV educators have crafted a message of prevention and are taking it to senior centers and other locales where older people meet. They also hope to create a welcoming environment for people who already have the virus.
New York City has the most HIV cases of any U.S. city - nearly 100,000 - and is considered a leader in the area of AIDS education for seniors, with the City Council having budgeted $1 million toward HIV education for older people.
But smaller-scale campaigns are also under way elsewhere.
Nancy Orel, a professor of gerontology at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, is organizing an Oct. 24 workshop for seniors that will include free condoms and HIV tests.