Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Drugs increase life expectancy of HIV patients by 13 years: study

From CBC News:
B.C. researcher Robert Hogg knew that a frequently used cocktail of drugs was helping people with HIV live longer than expected. He was also well aware of studies, regional in focus, that showed drugs taken in combination were keeping AIDS at bay.

Although treatment had to be for life, evidence was growing that people with HIV could live many years with the right mix of medication. Prospects for a longer life were improving.

But Hogg did not know how much better. So in the late 1990s, he undertook, along with researchers from Western Europe, the U.S. and Canada, to find out the impact of AIDS drugs on life expectancy.

Hogg and others published their findings in the July 26 issue of the medical journal Lancet. Their study found that a combination of antiretroviral drugs increases the life expectancy of HIV patients in high income countries by more than 13 years.

That means a patient who began drug treatment at age 20 could expect, on average, to live about 49 years longer to reach 69. ...more

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