Monday, July 28, 2008

HIV/AIDS: Updates

This one is wonderful and almost unbelievable. I really, really hope this is true:
The study, which is published in British medical journal The Lancet, found that a 20-year-old starting the anti-retroviral drug therapy could expect to live another 43 years - about two thirds of the average life expectancy of a non-affected person in the countries [US/Canada/Europe] studied.

The report is better flushed out at the Washington Post which gives us actual numbers from the study:
During the study period, 2,056 patients died. However, mortality decreased from 16.3 deaths per 1,000 person-years in 1996 to 1999 to 10 deaths per 1,000 person-years in 2003 to 2005. In addition, life expectancy for someone starting treatment at age 20 increased more than 13 years, from 56.1 years in 1996 to 1999 to 69.4 years in 2003 to 2005, the researchers found.

Please, please note the extremely high mortality rate though. This article also emphasizes the need for greater testing, especially at younger ages.

Similar information can also be found over at HealthJockey.com, though there they (thankfully) point out that life expectancy is still lower than other chronic diseases.

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And of course, some bad news to balance it out...
Though Hispanics comprise about 14 percent of the U.S. population, they represented 22 percent of new HIV and AIDS diagnoses tallied by federal officials in 2006.

Officials do not have a precise tally of HIV infections nationwide, because many states have not reported figures to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 22 percent, a figure that has not been previously released, includes 33 states and Puerto Rico, but not California, where more than 37 percent of the population is Hispanic.

The report focuses mainly on gay Hispanic men. I'd be curious about the rates in other subpopulations of Hispanics (and what it looks like in California!!!!).

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