Shift to older ages of HIV/AIDS deaths and its gender difference: inference derived from Vital Statistics of Japan

抄録

Death of HIV/AIDS patients <54 years old declined from 1995 to 2000; from 2000 on, however, the deaths of the HIV/AIDS patients >55 years old started increasing. Though deaths directly linked to infections declined since 2005, those related to malignancy, encephalopathy, interstitial pneumonia, wasting syndrome, etc. persisted. For all of HIV/AIDS (mainly males), ATL, CJD and general population, age of death shifted to older ages by 5 years in 10 years from 1999-2004 to 2010-2017. Among them, only HIV/AIDS patients and general population exhibited unequivocal gender difference. As of 2011-2016, the median of the deaths of the HIV/AIDS patients was 52.5 years for males and 70 years for females, while the median of the deaths of the general population was 75 years for males and 85 years for females. Male HIV/AIDS patients died 22.5 years earlier and female HIV/AIDS patients 15 years earlier than the general population. A common denominator of HIV/AIDS deaths and the deaths among the general population could be CD4⁺T cells: CD4⁺T cells were primary targets of HIV infection and decline of naïve CD4⁺T cells was a hallmark of aging.