LIFE EXPECTANCY OF HIV VICTIMS REACHES ALMOST AVERAGE LEVEL

According to Huffington Post, an online news aggregator and blog, the existence expectancy of HIV victims raises seemingly the same to normal. Base on the conducted investigation from the 23,000 sample victims, ages from 20 and above in US and Canada between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2007, the life expectancies of HIV positives have dramatically reached the average levels.

There were 1,622 deaths in the North American AIDS Cohort Collaboration, which contributed 82,022 person years to the study, for a crude mortality rate of 19.8 per 1,000 person years. During 2000 to 2002, the life expectancy for a 20-year-old was an additional 36 years. By 2006 to 2007, this figure had leapt to 51 years, so that a 20-year-old could, on average, expect to live into his or her early 70s—almost as long as the general population.

There were key differences in life expectancies between the different subpopulations. There were no significant gender differences in life expectancy except in the 2006 to 2007 period, when the women reached 47 additional years of life expectancy past age 20 and the men 53. Men who have sex with men (MSM) had an expected 69 years of life past 20 by the end of the study period, compared with 29 years for injection drug users—whose life expectancy was essentially flatlined at around 30 years past 20. Non-whites, while still trailing whites, made significant headway in closing the gap. Whites began the study with 53 years and ended it with 57 years of life expectancy past 20, while non-whites started with 30 years and ended with 48. Those with a CD4 count of at least 350, measured when they began, or within six months of beginning, antiretrovirals, had 69 years of life expectancy past 20 in the final period of the study, compared with 47 years for those with CD4 levels below this threshold.

On the other note, the findings do not necessarily mean that it is okay to acquire HIV disease. It is still important to be vigilant and be conscious enough to what we are doing.  Always practice safe sex as much as possible for  HIV kills.