According to a study that has been published in the journal of the American Medical Association, after five years of diagnosis, people with HIV in developed countries who received highly vigorous antiretroviral treatment have fewer chances to die like people without HIV.

Kholoud Porter and Krishnan Bhaskaran of the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit in London studied the records of people living in 10 developed European countries and Australia. 16,534 people diagnosed with HIV-positive from 1981 to 2006 were monitored by the researchers and after that the researchers made a comparison between the mortality rates of HIV-positive people during the first five years after infection and the rates of those that were of same age and gender and had HIV-negative .

During the study period, almost 2,500 HIV-positive people died in the study period and it was more than ten times the 235 deaths that occurred in same group of HIV-negative population. But it was also noted that a large number of deaths occurred in the study period when antiretroviral drugs were not available, the researchers stated. It was noted that before 1996 there was an increased death risk for newly diagnosed HIV-positive people around 8 percent to 20 percent , it’s worth mentioning that during this period of time antiretroviral cocktails were not frequently available.

According to porter, usually, the risk of death for people with HIV-positive gets higher after the first five years of infection and it may be a cause of people’s lesser inclination to antiretroviral schedules or can’t tolerate side effects from the drugs.

Porter further added “The study highlights the importance for people to diagnose and treated early”.

The study can be seen online.

Study Examines Death Rates For People Newly Diagnosed With HIV

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