Hispanic and black seniors are the fastest-growing segment of older people infected with HIV/AIDS. Last year, Hispanics and blacks accounted for 85 percent, or 101 cases, of the 119 new HIV/AIDS cases among people age 65 and older in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, according to the Florida Department of Health.

Health educators, who for years have spent most of their time in senior centers and condos, have realized they need a new battle plan. "When I started here, I thought you would send out a little flier about health education and AIDS, and you'd just get calls to go talk to people," said Hazel Reid, Miami coordinator for the Senior HIV Intervention Project, one of the first education programs in the country targeting people age 50 and older. "But we've had to totally change how to present things to different populations." SHIP was started in 1997 when the Florida Department of Elder Affairs realized seniors were getting AIDS too, and getting it through sex.

HIV in seniors is often not detected early because physicians do not link AIDS with seniors and because older patients are more likely to have other chronic health conditions that mask HIV's symptoms, said Dr. Karl Goodkin, a University of Miami professor in the department of psychiatry, behavioral sciences and neurobiology. And minority seniors are even more unlikely to go untested because they have less access to health care, said Paul Reichert of the Florida Health Department.

Since the state began tracking the statistics in 1984, among South Florida seniors, 783 blacks, 243 Hispanics, and 335 whites have contracted HIV/AIDS.

Most local non-profit AIDS organizations, including Community Healthcare/Center One, Broward's oldest HIV/AIDS agency, do not think the numbers justify a separate senior program. Overall, Floridians age 65 and older comprised 2 percent of the 13,201 new AIDS cases statewide diagnosed from 1997 through 2001. "We've lost $1 million in funding this last year. So our goal is to give the best service we can to those in greatest need," said Kai Johnson, a regional program manager with the Comprehensive AIDS Program in Riviera Beach.

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