How does treatment affect life expectancy?
In the past, many viewed an AIDS diagnosis as a death sentence. With the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in 1996, this view changed. This type of combination therapy can completely suppress the virus and slow the progression of the disease.
During the height of the epidemic in the United States, HIV was the eighth leading cause of death overall. By the mid-1990s, it accounted for 23% of deaths among men aged 25 to 44 years and 11% of deaths among women of the same age.
By 1995, HIV mortality had peaked to an all-time high, killing nearly 50,000 U.S. citizens and residents. With the introduction of HAART, it is now simply referred to as Antiretroviral therapyThe death rate decreased by more than 50% within three years.
People with HIV who are diagnosed and treated early can expect to live a normal to near-normal life expectancy. Without treatment, people with AIDS live an average of two years.
Even people with a clinical diagnosis of AIDS can benefit from antiretroviral therapy. However, the lower your CD4 cell count at the beginning of treatment, the less likely you are to achieve immune recovery.
Today, people infected with HIV are more likely to die from cancer than from infection. However, antiretroviral therapy can cut the risk of cancer and infections by half if started early (ideally before the CD4 cell count drops below 500).
a summary
Without treatment, people with AIDS live an average of two years. In contrast, if HIV is diagnosed and treated early, people can live as long as those without or close to having HIV.
Use of the term “AIDS”
Since the last revision to the list of conditions that define AIDS was issued in 2008, the CDC’s definition of AIDS has remained largely unchanged. What has changed is how the definition is used.
In the past, the CDC’s definition of AIDS was used to determine eligibility for Social Security Disability and other forms of financial or medical assistance. Because an AIDS diagnosis was associated with a high risk of death, a CD4 count of 200 was often enough to establish permanent disability.
The same standards do not apply today. Because HIV is now considered a chronically managed (long-term, but treatable) condition, people with HIV need to undergo a case-by-case evaluation to determine whether they are disabled under the provisions of the law.
Health care providers use the term “AIDS” less often today – in part because diagnosis of many AIDS-related conditions has improved.
Furthermore, AIDS remains a highly stigmatized term, and many health care providers and advocates prefer the term “advanced HIV infection” when describing the stage of the disease.
a summary
When the AIDS definition was first issued, it was used in part to ensure that people nearing the end of their lives had access to Social Security disability. This concern no longer applies today because people treated for HIV can live long, healthy lives.
AIDS prevention
Antiretroviral therapy is the only intervention that can stop disease progression and reduce the risk of HIV-related diseases in people with HIV.
Medications used to treat HIV require that you take them constantly. For most medications used to treat the disease, this means taking one or more pills per day.
In 2021, an injectable treatment called Cabinova (cabotegravir + rilpivirine) was approved for use once a month in the United States. It was later approved for each dose for two months. The new form of treatment, which requires two separate injections every month or every two months, is able to suppress the virus as effectively as taking HIV medications orally every day.
Of the approximately 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States, only 66% receive specific HIV care, and less than 60% achieve complete viral suppression during treatment. This leaves nearly half a million people vulnerable to avoidable diseases.
a summary
If you have HIV, only The way to avoid contracting AIDS is to start antiretroviral therapy. Most treatments are taken once daily, but a new injectable treatment called Cabenuva requires two separate injections once a month or every two months.
summary
AIDS is the most advanced stage of HIV infection. This occurs when the virus severely weakens the body’s immune defenses, leaving the body vulnerable to an ever-widening range of potentially life-threatening infections.
AIDS is diagnosed either when a person’s CD4 cell count drops below 200 or when they develop one of 27 different conditions that define AIDS. AIDS-defining conditions are diseases that rarely occur outside of people with AIDS.
If people with AIDS are left untreated, they usually die within two years of being diagnosed. In contrast, people who are diagnosed with HIV and treated early can live long, healthy lives.
