Protecting long-term health in HIV

HIV has changed significantly over the past 30 years from an acute, life-limiting illness to a chronic condition that, if diagnosed and treated effectively, can be controlled and managed into old age with the use of effective antiretroviral therapy (ART).

From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, the average life expectancy for someone diagnosed with HIV was less than five years. Today, people diagnosed early with HIV and treated will have a normal life expectancy and some, especially men, may outlive their non-HIV peers as they enter lifelong care where they are regularly checked and monitored for the rest of their lives.^1,2 However, late diagnosis (when the CD4 count is less than 350 on diagnosis) can mean a tenfold increase in the risk of dying within one year of diagnosis. Most of the 613 people with HIV who died in 2014 were diagnosed late.³