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Life expectancy in older people with HIV could exceed the average – as long as ART keeps working
Gus Cairns, 2012-11-19 18:30:00
The latest forecasts of life expectancy in people with HIV in the UK, based on mortality data from the UK Collaborative HIV Cohort (UK CHIC) study, show that the average life expectancy of people on antiretroviral therapy (ART) with a CD4 count over 350 cells/mm3 is now very close to the national average, the eleventh International Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection heard last week.
The UK CHIC study also found that life expectancy, which lags behind the average in younger people, approaches normal as people age. There is starting to be some evidence, though based on very small numbers of patient records, that if people with HIV in the UK reach the age of 60, their life expectancy may actually be starting to exceed the average, possibly because of superior medical monitoring and treatment for people with HIV compared to other older people.
Life expectancy is a projection into the future of how much longer people can expect to live, if current medical monitoring and treatment remains unchanged and if nothing unexpected happens. Up till now, because both HIV treatment and people’s health in general have been improving, life expectancy has been increasing.
However another study from Australia, based on current rates of treatment failure in people with HIV, warns that if antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimen failure continues at the current rate, people with HIV could run out of treatment options in later life. This would result in lower-than-expected life expectancies and higher mortality as people with HIV age unless the average time people achieve viral suppression on ART increases.
Source:1
