Jane Fowler is the original 1950s good girl. She was a virgin on her wedding night. She was faithful to one man during 23 years of marriage. But after her divorce, the 55-year-old good girl from Kansas found out she was HIV positive.

In 1990, Fowler was trying to find a new health insurance company – one that would give her equal coverage at a lower cost. As part of the application process, the insurance company sent a medical technician to take a blood sample.

Fowler was unconcerned. She always felt healthy. But when she returned home from a trip to San Francisco on Jan. 6, 1991, she received a letter from the health insurance company. She was rejected for coverage because of a “significant blood abnormality.”

Despite Fowler’s hopes that the insurance company mixed up her results, it was confirmed after a second test. She was HIV positive.

Fowler, now 71, is the face of HIV for people over 50.

Despite misconceptions, Fowler isn’t alone. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people 50 years and older make up approximately 12 percent of the total reported AIDS cases in the United States.

The CDC also reports, between 1998 and 2000, new AIDS cases increased 16 percent in the older generation compared to 12 percent in the 13 to 49 age bracket. The number of AIDS cases increased 15 percent in older men and 25 percent in older women. And the prevalence of AIDS among adults over 50 is more than twice that of children and young adults under 24.

“Look at this face,” Fowler says. “This old, wrinkled face. It’s not who you are and how old you are, but what you do.”

Because seniors aren’t always seen as sexual beings, health care professionals do not routinely test seniors for HIV and STDs. They may also shy away from discussing sexuality with older patients.

After going through her date book, Fowler pinpointed who she contracted HIV from. She got it from a long-time adult friend on New Years, 1986. Although she felt healthy, she distinctly remembers a period of time when she was sick for three weeks. She would later find out she was going through the acute primary stage of HIV, she saw her doctor five times in three weeks thinking she had the flu.

“What did we know about HIV, in 1986, in heterosexual women?” Fowler asks.

HIV is often misdiagnosed in seniors because its symptoms are similar to those associated with aging: fatigue, weight loss, dementia, skin rashes, and swollen lymph nodes.

Due to natural aging changes, women are more susceptible to infection during unprotected sex because of a decrease in vaginal lubrication and thinning vaginal walls.

Maybe sexual education should no longer just be mandatory for budding adolescents.

Dr. Rita Strombeck, in conjunction with Health Care Education Associates, created a new kind of curriculum called “HIV: What Persons Over 50 Need to Know.”

Dr. Strombeck says older adults are oblivious to the fact HIV affects them. They don’t see themselves as being at risk, yet at the end of 2005, it was estimated that 28 percent of people living with AIDS were persons over 50.

On a local level, the number of persons over 50 in the Bay Area living with AIDS is also increasing. In 2002, 3,500 seniors were living with HIV/AIDS. In 2006, the number jumped to 5,200.

New treatments are allowing HIV/AIDS patients to live longer and lead healthier lives.

In 1993, Fowler’s T-cell count dropped to 300 (200 T-cells means an AIDS prognosis). But by 1996, with the new drugs, the amount of virus in Fowler’s blood was almost undetectable.

Fowler, who had been living with the virus for ten years, says the drugs saved her life just in time. Even on medication, she still didn't know how much longer she was going to live. But after keeping her stuggle with HIV silent for so many years, she finally asked herself was she just going to stay silent and then die.

In 1995, she attended a conference on AIDS and aging, and from then on became an active member in the HIV/AIDS community. She helped found the National Association on HIV Over Fifty (NAHOF) and served five years as the co-chairperson on the board. In 2002, she branched and founded the national HIV Wisdom for Older Women program, which is dedicated to prevent transmission of the disease through education and awareness.

“You never know the sexual history of anybody but yourself,” Fowler says. “I think if there’s nothing else I can remind people of, it’s that.”