EON

Patients In Developed Countries Extending Their Lives

London-The patients that have HIV that live in developed countries are not any more likely to die than members of the general public.

People that have contracted HIV or AIDS through sexual contact are at a higher risk but not as high as has been believed previously.

The results of a new study are being published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, and it relates different issues dealing with the AIDS epidemic and drugs that were introduced to fight the symptoms of the disease in the 1990’s.

Men and women that were infected through IV or injected drug use were not included in this study, and their specific death rate remained higher in the five years after they contracted HIV or AIDS.

Overall the life expectancies for patients with AIDS or the HIV virus has risen to the point that they are beginning to approach those of the general population that does not have the disease.

There is no known cure or vaccine for HIV or AIDS but the drugs that deal with the symptoms are showing great promise for keeping patients reasonably healthy for years after they contract the AIDS virus.

This simply means that to remain healthy these drugs must be taken daily and weekly for life.