The life expectancy¹ of people infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Europe and the United States has been boosted by a decade since anti-AIDS drugs became available in the mid-1990s, researchers said on Thursday.

 

研究人员周四表示，20世纪90年代中期抗艾滋病药物问世之后，欧洲和美国的艾滋病患者的预期寿命被延长了十年。

 

A 20-year-old who began treatment at any time since 2008 now has an expected lifespan, about 78 years, approaching that of an uninfected person, said a study in The Lancet HIV. Life expectancy in the "general population", excluding people infected with the AIDS-causing virus, is 79 years for men and 85 for women in France, and 78 for men and 82 for women in the United States, said the researchers. 

 

People who started antiretroviral treatment (ART) in 2008 or after lived longer, healthier lives than those who started treatment in earlier years, the researchers added. This was likely because modern drugs have fewer toxic² side-effects, but are better at preventing the virus from replicating³ in the body. Newer drugs also have greater resistance to the virus.

 

"With the perception that HIV-positive people will live into old age, clinicians are screening for and treating comorbidities (diseases on top of HIV) more aggressively," said the paper. These included heart disease, hepatitis C and cancer.‍

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