PARIS
The vast majority of people who take the antiHIV drugs "cocktail" can expect to survive at least a decade, according to one of the largest assessments of this key medication regime.
The evaluation published in The Lancet in October encompasses data from Europe, Australia, and Canada of 7,740 individuals with the AIDS virus. They were enrolled into the study before the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in 1997; from 1997 to 1998 when HAART became available in limited quantities; and 1999 to 2001 when it became widely accessible in those countries.
Before 1997, people with HIV aged 15 to 24 years would survive on average for 12.5 years after they became infected. By comparison, among people aged 45 to 54, the survivability was much lower-they lived on average for just 7.9 years after infection.
After 1997, though, HAART started to make a dramatic impact, the study shows.
In its first year of introduction, when about one in five HIV patients in the study had access to the drugs, death rates were reduced by 50 percent compared with pre-1997 levels. Mortality fell a remarkable 80 percent in 2001, when 57 percent of the study's patients had access to the drugs.
Because HAART was introduced only six years ago and most of the people who are taking it are still alive, it is impossible to give a projection as to their longevity, research leader Kholoud Porter of Britain's MRC Clinical Trials Unit said.
But, in all the age categories, from 15 to 64 years, the survivability is likely to be a decade, she said. "Ten years after infection, 90 percent of people with HIV who took HAART were still alive, regardless of how old they were," Porter said. "It has raised survivability expectations for everyone, regardless of age."
Porter said there was no sure reason why the age difference in survivability had ironed out between the pre- and post- HAART thresholds.
HAART comprises a regime of three antiretroviral drugs that inhibit the reproduction of HIV. In many cases, it can reduce HIV loads to below detectable levels. But it is not a cure and it can have toxic side effects. If the drugs are stopped, the virus bounces back and progressively overwhelms and destroys the immune system.
AFP
