The outlook for people living with HIV has greatly improved over the past two decades. Many people who are HIV-positive can now live longer than before, and live healthier lives when they’re in routine care.
U.S. Kaiser Permanente researchers found that the regular life expectancy for people living with HIV and receiving treatment has increased and gone up significantly ever since 1996. This is because of the new antiretroviral drugs which were developed and added to the already existing antiretroviral therapy. This drug resulted in a highly effective HIV treatment regimen. In 1996, the total life expectancy for an infected 20-year-old person was only 39 years. In 2011, the total life expectancy bumped up to about 70 years. That is a 31 year difference of a happy full life. Someone who is HIV-positive, receiving treatment, and who is in optimal health (meaning they do not do or take drugs and are free of other infections) may live to be in their late 70s. The survival rate for people who live with HIV/AIDS has also dramatically improved since the first days of the entire HIV/AIDS epidemic. Researchers in a study in 2013, found that 78 percent of people with HIV had deaths between 1988 and 1995 were due to AIDS. Between 2005 and 2009, that figure dropped greatly to 15 percent. A person living with HIV who isn’t on treatment is still more likely to develop AIDS and experience an early death. In the future we can only hope there will be more money donated towards the research for an AIDS/HIV to finally find a cure.
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