AIDS: the life expectancy of patients has increased by 10 years

10 years of gained. Since 1996, when the first triple therapy began, people infected withthe AIDS virus increased their life expectancy by an average of 10 years in European and North American countries.

Advances in antiretroviral treatment explain this significant advance in the lives of patients, explains the study published in the The Lancet magazine. Better prevention, better screening and less toxic treatments with fewer side effects justify this improvement. It is now possible to live longer with AIDS. Some figures confirm this news: the life expectancy of a man infected with HIV at the age of 20 is 73 when triple therapywas started in 2008. She is 76 years old for women. These data are close to the average life expectancy of the general population (80.9 on average in the European Union for example).

A triple therapy that continues to improve

To obtain these results, researchers at the University of Bristol scrutinized 18 studies conducted in Europe and North America, carried out on a total of 88,504 patients with HIV and who started on triple therapy between 1996 and 2010. Analysis shows that during the first three years of antiretroviral therapy, the number of deaths from the AIDS virus is lower in patients who started treatment between 2008 and 2010 than in those who started earlier. , between 1996 and 2007. It is now established that when triple therapy is taken as soon as the diagnosis is made, the risk of dying or developing infections linked to the virus is reduced.

“Our research illustrates a great success: improved HIV treatments, doubled by screening, prevention and treatment of health problems associated with infection can prolong life expectancy, “said Adam Trickey of the University of Bristol to Reuters.

In France 153,000 people are affected by AIDS.

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