Life expectancy
It’s pleasing to introduce the World AIDS Day edition of HIV Weekly with some good news.
Research from the UK suggests that life expectancy is now normal for some patients with HIV.
However, prognosis was significantly poorer for those whose HIV was diagnosed late. The latest prevalence figures show that many patients are diagnosed late.
Researchers looked at the records of over 18,000 patients who received HIV care in the UK between 1996 and 2008.
There have been big advances in HIV treatment and care in this period. This was mirrored in the improving life expectancy of patients.
Indeed, life expectancy is now normal for some patients.
However, because of late diagnosis, overall life expectancy was still significantly poorer for patients with HIV than their HIV-negative peers.
The latest figures from the UK show that late diagnosis continues to be a big problem. They showed that 30% of patients only have their HIV detected when their CD4 cell count is below 200. This means that they are vulnerable to serious illnesses.
Nevertheless, even if HIV is diagnosed late, patients can still benefit from HIV treatment. With current standards of treatment and care those diagnosed late at age 20 could still expect to live until they were 66.
HIV medicine is very fast moving and if the last 15 years are anything to go by it’s likely that treatment will become even better in the years to come.
HIV and the law – can tests prove who infected whom?
This could have implications in criminal HIV transmission cases.
The researchers claim that a testing method called phylogenetic analysis can prove who infected whom – but only if the test is conducted soon after transmission occurred.
But many other researchers are not persuaded. One said that the conclusions of the US doctors were “unwarranted”.
Crucially, they believe that even prompt phylogenetic testing cannot rule out the possibility that a third individual was involved in a transmission chain.
It has been suggested that the only 'safe' use of phylogenetic analysis in criminal HIV transmission cases is to rule someone out of an investigation.
NAM recently published a book on HIV and the criminal law. You can purchase a copy or read the content online at www.aidsmap.com/law. Alternatively contact us on 020 7837 6988 or info@nam.org.uk for details.