{current} HIV drugs 'add 13 years of life' (BBC)

Life expectancy for people with HIV has increased by an average of 13 years since the late 1990s thanks to better HIV treatment, a study says.

Researchers said it meant HIV was now effectively a chronic condition like diabetes, rather than a fatal disease, the Lancet reported.

The team, involving Bristol University staff, looked at over 43,000 patients.

The study found a person now diagnosed at 20 years old could expect to live for another 49 years.

But the Antiretroviral Therapy Cohort Collaboration, which includes scientists from across Europe and Northern America, warned this was still short of the life expectancy for the wider population which stands at about 80.
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7523212.stm

HIV treatment turned a big corner, at least in Europe and the Americas, in '96. I'm of the HIV class of '88. Got lucky through the early 90's. And I'm sure the breakthrough in antiretrovirals are a big reason I'm still around.

Do I expect a statistical average life expectancy? No. Is HIV the only determining factor in my longevity? No, not now. It was once, though. That has changed.

:hi:

I have to wonder how much better things could have been over the last seven and a half years, if we had a President who genuinely cared.

:hi:

;-)