NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, April 11, 2013

People living with HIV in South Africa, who access antiretroviral therapy (ART) before their immune systems are severely compromised, have life expectancies close to that of the general population, researchers have found.

Published this week in the journal PLOS Medicine, the research shows that the life expectancies (additional years of life) are around 80% of that of the general population, provided those with HIV initiate treatment before their CD4 count (a measure of the strength of the immune system at the time of starting treatment) drops below 200.

The findings could impact on the cost of life insurance (reducing it) and epidemiological modeling estimates, which typically assume that life expectancy after starting ART is around 10 years.