According a lead researcher, Robert Hogg, British Colombia center for excellence, Vancouver, the life expectancy of HIV patients in developed countries taking antiviral therapy has increased more than 13 years, and deaths have dropped by almost 40 percent. The report has been prepared working on the patients since 1996.
However, life expectancy still falls short by some 20 years, compared with people in the general population. Life expectancy among injection drug users and those who start their treatment late is even shorter.
As per Robert Hogg’s claim, “People on antiretroviral therapy can live a fairly long life. If they are a woman, they can marry and have a child, and see the child grow up. If they’re going to school, they can graduate from university, or they can continue to have a full adult life expectancy." This surely shows great satisfaction for the suffering millions.
One of the most striking successes of HIV/AIDS research has been the development of antiretroviral therapy that significantly extends the lives of people living with HIV. Rowena Johnston, vice president for research at the Foundation for AIDS Research, thinks that antiretroviral treatment has transformed HIV/AIDS from an early death sentence to a manageable chronic illness.
Increasingly longer life expectancy is obviously a boon to patients and doctors, but it comes with increased risk of side effects and other difficulties associated with taking these medications for long periods of time, Johnston said. "Clearly, though, the benefits outweigh the risks," she added.
"Longer life expectancies are shifting what has been the traditional portrait of AIDS, such as body-wasting along with numerous rare infections, into a condition that is increasingly associated with some of the manifestations we traditionally think of with older age, like cancers, heart disease, kidney and liver disease, and insulin resistance," Johnston said.
However, it is well noted that all patients can not afford the antiretroviral therapy because of the economical constraint. Only a few fortunate can have this therapy in developed countries whereas most of the underdeveloped and developing country’s patients continue suffering.
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