Good news: Deaths due to HIV are way down

World news this month appropriately focuses on containing the COVID-19 pandemic, as the first vaccines become available. Yet we can also celebrate major success in the fight against a different global viral scourge: HIV. During my medical training in the 1980s, hospital wards were often filled with people dying of HIV. Since then, antiviral treatments have dramatically transformed the diagnosis of HIV infection or AIDS from a death sentence to a chronic illness. A normal lifespan is no longer unusual among people living with HIV. And preventive measures described below have reduced the number of people becoming infected in the first place. Since the 1980s peak of new HIV infections, the number of people with newly diagnosed HIV in the US has fallen by more than two-thirds. Deaths due to HIV infection continue to fall A study published in the November 2020 Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report noted remarkable progress: Between 2010 and 2018, overall deaths among those diagnosed with HIV fell by more than a third, from 19.4 to 12.3 per 1,000 people. From 2010 through 2017, deaths related to HIV fell by nearly half, dropping from 9.1 to 4.7 per 1,000 people). The highest rates of HIV-related death were noted among people who were Black, people who identified themselves as mixed-race, and people living in the South. Men with HIV had slightly lower death rates than women. The study authors attribute the falling death rates to early diagnosis and improved treatment. There’s st...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Infectious diseases LGBTQ Prevention Relationships Sexual Conditions Source Type: blogs