HAART Adds Years for People With HIV

Oct. 16, 2003 -- The future is something those with HIV can now look forward to, thanks to aggressive treatment with HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy).

A new study shows that now that HAART therapy is widely available, nine out of 10 people infected with HIV can expect to survive more than 10 years, regardless of their age.

Researchers say that the age at which people become infected with the virus that causes AIDS no longer worsens their survival chances, but how they acquired the infection can have a major impact. The study showed that people who became infected with HIV from injected drug use are four times as likely to die than those who got the virus through homosexual contact.

HAART Improves HIV Survival

The study, published in the Oct. 18 issue of The Lancet, looked at the effect of HAART in HIV treatment since its introduction in 1997. Using information collected by 22 studies in Europe, Australia, and Canada, researchers analyzed the impact of HAART on survival and progression to full-blown AIDS among people with HIV.

Compared with pre-1997 data, researchers found death rates were reduced by 50% in 1997 and by more than 80% by 2001. During this period, use of HAART increased from 22% to 57%.

Researchers say that before HAART became available, people who were over age 45 when they became infected with HIV had a higher risk of progressing to AIDS then people who acquired the virus when they were younger (ages 16-24).

But by 1999-2001, age at HIV infection no longer was a major factor in the risk of progressing to AIDS.

Although overall survival has improved for people with HIV, researchers also found that the relative importance of other factors surrounding HIV infection has changed. For example, the study showed that people who became infected with HIV as the result of injected drug use had much higher death rates than those who contracted the virus as the result of homosexual contact.

Researchers say that among injected drug users, exposure to other diseases such as hepatitis C and reduced access to health care may be contributing to their higher risk of death.

Now that people with HIV are living longer with HAART, researchers say the next issue is tracking non- HIV causes of death among these patients and findings ways to prevent them.